ELECTION

Almost peaceful polling in Cooch Behar

 

COOCH BEHAR, May 18: Polling at the three-tier panchayat election in Cooch Behar district passed off almost peacefully. Fifty-five percent polling was reported upto 5 p.m., the district magistrate of Cooch Behar Mr Rajesh Kumar Sinha claimed.

 

Polling was not held at three gram panchayats of Dinhata-I, Tufanganj-II and Mathabhanga-II blocks following the death of contesting candidates and other reasons. Election will be held in these seats later, as per State Election Commission's instruction, the district magistrate said.

 

As the weather was pleasant enough till the afternoon the voters turned up in a huge number. The presence of women in queues was noteworthy. Many voters appeared at the polling booths at around 5 a.m. to exercise their franchise as early as possible. Till 10-30 a.m. about twenty percent voting was completed. At 12-noon it rose to 31 percent. At 3 p.m. the percentage rose to 42.44. At about 3-30 p.m. a massive storm lashed several areas of the district and that caused disruption of polling. Later, the situation turned normal and the electors came back to queues.

 

At Sadiyaler Kuthi AP School (polling station no. 80) under Choudhurihat GP in Dinhata-II block the polling was not started at the scheduled time due to error and inconsistency in ballot papers. Later, the polling started after taking consent from the contesting candidates. In Nishiganj-I GP under Mathabhanga-II block the polling was not held due to erroneous printing of the name of candidates. Here the polling will be held soon.

 

At the polling booth of Lakshmikanto High School of Madhupur GP in Cooch Behar-II, polling was disrupted for more than one hour following a dispute over casting of votes of an elector. The situation of Chhoto Salbari of Sitalkuchi became tense over allegation of recovery of a fake voting stamp from a political party's tent. []

 

Section 144 imposed in Cooch Behar

 

COOCH BEHAR, May 18: Cooch Behar DM Mr Rajesh Kumar Sinha promulgated Section 144 CrPC prohibiting assembly of five or more persons in the entire Cooch Behar district from yesterday. This order will remain in force till 6 a.m. tomorrow. Apprehending serious breach of peace and injury to general public and the persons lawfully employed for conducting polls and danger to human life and property from anti-social and rowdy elements, the order was promulgated, the DM said.

 

Mentionworthy, there were 1,875 polling stations for 14,81,019 voters in Cooch Behar district. The number of seats in the Zilla Parishad tier is 29, in 12 Panchayat Samitis the total number of seats is 353 and in 128 Gram Panchayats there are 1,668 seats. []