Odisha: Polling to be webcast in Ganjam district

The Ganjam district administration has decided to webcast polling in 19 selected booths in various Assembly constituencies.

"Polling would be webcast from at least 19 booths where broadband facility by the BSNL is available," District Collector Prem Chandra Chaudhary said.

The main objective of the webcast was to prevent illegal activities like booth capturing and bogus voting, the collector said. Of the 2,879 polling stations in the district, 548 booths have been identified as sensitive.

The webcast would connect a polling booth to the EC in New Delhi, state chief electoral officer in Bhubaneswar and district election officer at Chhatrapur. Moreover, the video would be closely monitored in the district election control room.

The district administration has set up a help line number, 1950, for people to lodge complaints, if they found any illegal activities in the polling station. The complaint could also be lodged to the SP and district collector.

On receipt of a complaint, the police would reach the spot within 15 minutes in urban areas and 30 minutes in rural areas, Chaudhary said.