This story is from May 20, 2019

Hyderabad: District election authority gears up for counting on May 23

With votes set to be counted on May 23, district election authority (Hyderabad) is gearing up for counting. The counting will start at 8 am at 14 centres across the city.
Hyderabad: District election authority gears up for counting on May 23
(Representative image)
HYDERABAD: With votes set to be counted on May 23, district election authority (Hyderabad) is gearing up for counting. The counting will start at 8 am at 14 centres across the city.
“We have 1,000 staff, including backup. Initially, postal ballots will be counted for first 30 minutes,” said a top official from Hyderabad district election authority.
In all, 11 observers—all IAS officers from different states—have been appointed by Election Commission of India (ECI) to monitor the counting process.
For each assembly segment, five voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) slips will be randomly counted. The slips will be counted after the counting ends. All the distribution and reception centres (DRC), commonly known as counting centres, have three-tier security.
“Apart from three-tier security, every DRC will be monitored by on one officer of Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) rank. We have also deployed city security wing at every centre for access control,” said City Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar speaking to TOI.
As part of three-tier security, the ‘outermost circle’ will be by patrolled by local cops including ACP, the middle circle will be taken care by city armed reserved forces and the inner circle will be monitored by central armed reserved forces. “We have also set up CTV camera at all the access points and every DCP will monitor three centres,” said Anjani Kumar.
Every counting centre will have 14 tables. At each table, five staffers will be deployed for counting process. While a supervisor counts the votes, the assistant supervisor helps him. After the counting is finished, an observer will verify the votes. The observer will be assisted by two micro observer. As per ECI norms, the observer has to verify the votes counted by supervisor and sign a sheet.
The officials who are deployed for counting will be trained on May 22 at Mukarram Jah Junior College, Pathar Gatti. One training session has already been completed on May 16 at Hari Hara Kala Bhavan in Secunderabad.
Counting will be done at Reddy College, LB Stadium, Kotla Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy Indoor Stadium, and seven other DRC centres.
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