Booths set up on high-rise premises, voting machines brought to doorsteps
Times of India | 1 June 2024
Kolkata: Residents living in high-rises and housing complexes across the city are all geared up for casting their votes on Saturday. While a few complexes have polling booths on their campuses, majority of the gated communities will move out of their societies and vote at the nearby booths.
Around 2,500 voters residing in the South City housing complex at Prince Anwar Shah Road under south Kolkata constituency will go to the adjacent South City International School.Arup Ghosh, secretary of the complex’s Owner’s Welfare Association said, “This time we saw the candidates visiting our complex to campaign before the elections. Around 90 residents had attended these campaigning sessions.”
In New Town under Barasat constituency, Balaka Abasan has got a polling booth for the first time. Rajeev Gupta, a resident of the complex said, “We have around 500 voters and since the polling booth has come up in our community centre, we will not have to face any problem in case it rains.”
The Election Commission has deployed a special Quick Response Team (QRT) in New Town where voters from high-rises were stopped from voting less than a year ago. The team will be led by paramilitary personnel along with the state police.
“All arrangements are in place so that people can come to cast their votes without fear. Special teams have been formed for sensitive areas,” said Gaurav Sharma, Bidhannagar Police commissioner.
Sameer Gupta, general secretary of the New Town Citizens Welfare Fraternity said, “We have appealed to the EC to conduct the Lok Sabha polls peacefully. Cops have also assured us of the same.”
Another polling booth has come up on the premises of Neelam Abasan Housing Cooperative Society at Nimta under Dum Dum Lok Sabha constituency. About 475 residents from this complex will cast their votes on campus while 13 of them are new voters, according to Debojyoti Sengupta, secretary of the society.
Other housing complexes, which have no polling booths, also constitute a good number of voters in the city. Urbana Complex at Anandapur under south Kolkata constituency has around 621 voters. Sudip Roy Choudhury of Daffodil Greens Housing Complex at Tollygunge, said, “Over 500 voters from our complex will cast votes in a nearby school on Saturday.” Deepak Jaiswal, president of Merlin Warden Lakeview’s Resident’s Welfare Association at Ultadanga in north Kolkata constituency said, “There are about 1,500 voters in our complex.”