7,000 central forces personnel reach Tripura for deployment during polls

Around 7,000 central forces personnel have arrived in Tripura to ensure free and fair elections in the two Lok Sabha seats in the state, and more are likely to come soon, Chief Electoral Officer CEO Puneet Agarwal said on Tuesday.Addressing a press conference, he said CCTV cameras will be installed in all polling booths, and live streaming will be done to monitor the voting process from a control room.All necessary arrangements will be made to ensure free, fair, transparent and peaceful elections.

Around 7,000 central forces personnel have arrived in Tripura to ensure free and fair elections in the two Lok Sabha seats in the state, and more are likely to come soon, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Puneet Agarwal said on Tuesday.

Addressing a press conference, he said CCTV cameras will be installed in all polling booths, and live streaming will be done to monitor the voting process from a control room.

''All necessary arrangements will be made to ensure free, fair, transparent and peaceful elections. The first round of checking of EVMs has already been done,'' he said.

''Vulnerability mapping of all polling booths has also been completed,'' he added.

Polling will be held for the Tripura West Lok Sabha seat on April 19. That day, the by-election to the Ramnagar assembly constituency will also be held. The Tripura East seat will go to the polls on April 26.

Altogether 13.61 lakh people are eligible to cast their votes in the West Tripura Lok Sabha seat, while 45,669 people will exercise their democratic right in the Ramnagar bypoll, the CEO said.

The number of voters in the East Tripura seat is 13.95 lakh, he said.

Agarwal said one more polling booth will be set up in Santirbazar's Kalagang area where Bru refugees were settled in January. The state has 3,349 polling stations at present.