No complaints on paid news or MCC violation in Tripura: CEO

PTI
AGARTALA, MARCH 30

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Election Commission has not received any complaint from Tripura regarding paid news or violation of Model Code of Conduct for the coming Lok Sabha elections till date, Tripura Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Ashutosh Jindal said today.
“No complaint was filed with the EC alleging abuse of the media through paid news. Few complaints were filed including allegations of attempts to influence voters by distributing bicycles to school students and we have taken all necessary steps to address them,” Jindal told reporters at the Agartala Press Club here.A total of 23,85,559 voters were eligible to exercise their franchise in the elections to be held in Tripura in two phases on April 7 and 12 respectively, and 5.22 per cent of the total voters in the state were new voters in the age group of 18 and 19, he said.
“On gender ratio, Tripura is much better poised this year than the previous Lok Sabha election as 945 were females per thousand men in 2009. We are now having 963 women per thousand men this year”, the CEO said.
25 candidates are in the poll fray in the two LS seats of the state including 13 from the West Tripura Lok Sabha constituency and 12 from the East Tripura constituency.
Asked about security situation, Jindal said around 25 polling stations have been marked hyper-sensitive in both the constituencies and some 350 were marked sensitive.
Finalisation of the vulnerability assessment was still subject to discussion with representatives of political parties, the official said, adding all-party meetings were currently in progress in all sub-divisions of the state.
The state election authority was exploring possibilities to set up solely women-run polling stations in the polls, the CEO said.
“We had women-run polling stations in the 2013 state Assembly elections. We are working on it for the Lok Sabha election as well,” he said.
Approximately ten polling stations were expected to be solely run by women this year, Jindal said.
The Indian Air Force (IAF) has agreed to provide a helicopter for the Lok Sabha elections, the CEO said, adding around 22,000 security personnel including 15,000 state police and Tripura State Rifles (TSR) jawans and 35 companies of Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) personnel were deployed across the state to maintain law and order before, during and after the elections.