Bhubaneswar, Feb 16: Over 30 per cent of voters have exercised their franchise till 1100 hours in the first phase of polling for the three-tier Panchayat elections in Odisha. According to the secretary to the State Election Commission ( SEC) R N Sahu the polling began at 0700 hours on a peaceful note and no major untoward incidents have been reported barring some stray incidents of tensions in some booths.
About 67.51 lakh voters will exercise their franchise in 22,379 booths in 1669 Panchayats spread over 71 blocks in all the 30 districts in the state. The authority has deployed nearly 225 platoons of police forces and 37,425 police personnel have been deployed to conduct smooth polling. Extra security arrangements have been made in all the sensitive booths. A report from Puri said some miscreants had entered booth number 9 in Kasijharia village under Brahmagiri block and took away the ballot boxes. The incident took place at around 1000 hours. Voting will continue till 0100 PM and only those who have entered the booth before 1 PM will be allowed to cast their ballots.
