Agartala, January 25, 2023: Chief Electoral Officer Kiran Gitte on Wednesday said that 1,100 polling booths and 28 booths have been identified as “Vulnerable” and “Critical” out of the total number of 3,328 polling booths across the state.

While addressing at the ‘meet the press’ organized by Agartala Press Club on Wednesday morning, CEO Gitte said “On the ground of law and order situation, 1,100 booths have been identified as ‘vulnerable’ and 28 as ‘critical’ based on the inputs of Assembly Polls in 2018 and Lok Sabha election in 2019.”

“In the booths identified as ‘critical’, one candidate has polled more than 70 percent of votes during the previous election. However, no booth has been marked as ‘hypersensitive’.”

The central government has already sent around 200 companies of central armed paramilitary forces to the poll-bound state to ensure the elections are held in a peaceful, free and fair manner, he added.

Gitte said that the election machinery has been able to prevent many untoward incidents from December 18 to January 25 based on the graph of poll violence which has a steady decline over the past few weeks across the state.

“So far, the Election Commission has received 600 complaints approximately through ‘C-Vigil App’ and action has been initiated on 480 complaints while the authorities have dropped some of them”, he also added.

Replying on the arrival of three special observers, Gitte said “To review the preparations for the general election slated to be held on February 16 next in 60 assembly constituencies, the senior retired bureaucrats- Yogendra Tripathy, Vivek Johri and B Murli Kumar held separate meetings with poll officials, district magistrates and superintendents of police of the eight districts.”

He further added that the special observers also held meetings with the representatives of various enforcement agencies of excise, narcotics, and customs for keeping a sharp eye on illegal activities during the election.