Bihar to guide poll-bound states on conducting elections amid COVID pandemic

The Bihar government will guidefour poll-bound states and a Union territory on conductingelections amid the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said onWednesday.

The state's Health Department had won accolades forconducting the elections to the 243-member assembly amid thecoronavirus surge last year.

Officials from West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assamand Puducherry, where elections are lined up this year, aredialling the Bihar Health Department for tips to accomplishthe gigantic task without causing a surge in coronaviruscases, they said.

Accepting the Assam government's request, a BiharHealth Department team will visit the northeastern state soonto give a detailed presentation on how the assembly electionswere conducted with adherence to the COVID-19 guidelines,Principal Secretary, Health, Pratyaya Amrit told PTI.

''Bihar has received similar requests from West Bengaland other states and we will share our experiences with them,''the official, credited with leading his team to successfullyconduct the Bihar elections in October-November last year,said.

On conducting the polls amid the coronavirus surge, hesaid, ''It was a big challenge before us. We could accomplishthe task due to the hard work of all the staffers and supportfrom the Election Commission of India and the stategovernment.'' The Bihar administration had made arrangements for the7.3 crore voters to exercise their franchise at over 1.06 lakhpolling stations.

Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora had lauded themanner in which the elections were conducted. Around 57.34 percent (over four crore) of the 7.3 crore voters exercised theirfranchise, which was higher than the previous assemblyelection's voting percentage of 56.8 per cent.

The ECI had procured 18 lakh face shields, 70 lakhmasks, 5.4 lakh single-use rubber gloves for polling andsecurity personnel and 7.21 crore one hand single-usepolythene gloves for voters to press the EVM button and signthe register at the polling stations.

Keeping paucity of time in mind, the orders wereplaced by the Bihar Medical Services and InfrastructureCorporation Ltd through the Government e-Marketplace portal.

Teams were then sent to the production and supplycentres at Agra, Ajmer, Dehradun and New Delhi to ensuretimely delivery of items.

Over 10 lakh ASHA workers and Jeevika didis (membersof SHGs) were mobilised at three nodal centres Patna,Muzaffarpur and Purnia for packaging the procured items intokits, Health Department sources said.

Buses were arranged for the women to and from thecentres, which were sanitised thrice a day, they said.

The kits were then packed and handed over to districtmagistrates and superintendents of police for booth-wisedistribution.

ANMs, paramedics and ASHA workers were trained forthermal scanning at polling stations.

Lists of COVID-19 positive electors were providedbeforehand to polling officials and special training wasimparted to handle them.

The supply of such a large quantity of safety kitsalso necessitated effective bio-medical waste management.

Every polling station had yellow bags and bins for thecollection of waste.

Trucks were arranged for collecting the waste twice onthe day of polling. The waste items were deposited at thenearest assigned healthcare facility and later disposed of asper standard protocol.