As the first phase of panchayat polls began on Tuesday, Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Raj commissioner Girija Shankar on Monday said election officials will conduct thermal scanning of all the voters to screen people with body temperature or coronavirus symptoms to facilitate them to exercise their franchise separately.
"All the coronavirus precautionary measures have been taken. Temperatures will be checked when the voters are in the queue. Anyone with high temperature will be separated," said Shankar. He said the screened voters will be allowed to vote between 2.30 pm and 3.30 pm using a PPE kit. Anyone who is coronavirus positive will be allowed to vote in a similar way, he added.
"Distribution in about 2,700 gram panchayats is underway today. After randomization, election personnel will be informed of their polling stations and given the order. Later, they will take Presiding Officer and Assistant PO and verify it," said Shankar, explaining the preparations for the polls.
He said all the arrangements required for election officers have been put in place, including bandobast for peaceful polls at all places.
Elections will start from 6.30 a. on Tuesday and last until 3.30 pm, while vote counting will begin from 4 p.m.
With the border dispute between Odisha and Andhra Pradesh aggravated by Andhra’s decision to hold rural polls in some of the villages in the area, the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council chairman on Monday said the issue could be resolved through discussion between the two governments.
Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council Chairman Mohammed Ahmed Shariff was in Bhubaneswar on Monday along with a team to hold a meeting with the Odisha government on language-based education in bordering villages of Rayagada, Gajapati, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Ganjam and Koraput districts.
“In India, any dispute between two states can be amicably settled through discussion. I will apprise the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister on the concern expressed by the Odisha government,” Shariff told reporters.
Odisha School and Mass Education Minister S R Dash, who attended the meeting, said, “Though the border dispute was not in the meeting's agenda, I apprised the visitors of Andhra Pradesh government’s attempt to hold rural polls in villages in Odisha's jurisdiction.”
Dash spoke to the Andhra delegation about the jurisdiction dispute at Kotia panchayat under Pottangi block in tribal Koraput district.
Claiming that the people in the Kotia region are lured with different offers by the Andhra government to take part in panchayat polls of that state, Dash said he personally appealed to that state through the delegation to sort out the issue.
Meanwhile, Odisha BJP vice-president Balabhadra Majhi blamed the Odisha government for the people in Kotia gram panchayat being allegedly in favour of Andhra Pradesh.
"The Kotia area people support Andhra Pradesh because they get facilities from that government," Majhi said.
He claimed that the Odisha government is not even aware that Andhra Pradesh has already accorded panchayat status to three villages in Kotia area and is all set to conduct elections on February 13 and 17 by changing their names.
Recently, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had inaugurated projects of Rs 13 crore and laid the foundation stone for projects being built at a cost of Rs 5 crore in Kotia gram panchayat.
It was discussed in the meeting that around 80 lakh Telugu-speaking reside in the bordering Odisha districts and though teacher training centres have been set up in these districts, language teachers could not be appointed due to technical snag, an official said.
Similarly, many Odias live in Srikakulam and Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh. Around 4,000 Odia children are studying in Andhra Pradesh, where they face similar situations in schools. There are a total 230 Odia schools in Andhra Pradesh where 130 Odia teachers are yet to be appointed, the meeting was informed.
Sharriff assured Dash that the Andhra government will take care of Odia students in their State.
(With inputs from PTI and IANS)