Udupi: Priyanka Mary Francis, Deputy Commissioner, said on Friday that there were 221 critical polling booths in Udupi district.

Addressing presspersons here, Ms. Francis said that the first round randomisation of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) had been done in front of the representatives of the political parties on April 24.

There were 1,103 polling booths in the district. There were 1,437 ballot units, 1,315 control units, and 1,381 VVPATs required for the five Assembly constituencies in the district. These units had been shifted from District Security Room to the Assembly Constituency Security Rooms.

Byndoor Assembly constituency had 246 polling booths. Hence, the number of ballot units given to Byndoor was 320, along with 293 Control Units and 308 VVPATs. Kundapur constituency had 218 booths. The number of ballot units, control units and VVPATs give to Kundapur were 284, 260 and 273 respectively.

Udupi constituency had 225 polling stations and it had been provided with 293 ballot units, 268 control units and 282 VVPATs. Kaup and Karkala Assembly Constituencies had 207 polling booths each. Both of them had been provided with 270 ballot units each, 247 control units each and 259 VVPATs each.

The second round of randomisation of EVMs/VVPATs would be held at the Deputy Commissioner’s Office here on April 28 in the presence of the general observers and representatives of political parties, she said.

Ms. Francis said she had recently visited the remote and vulnerable booths in the district. Some polling booths in Byndoor constituency had connectivity issues. The Panchayat Development Officers (PDOs) had been told to make arrangements to transport voters of remote areas to the polling booths on the day of polling by talking to local transport operators or with polling party vehicles, if it was necessary.

From March 27 to April 26, the amount of cash seized for not being documented in different parts of the district was ₹92.83 lakh. Of this amount, ₹13.75 lakh was released after production of relevant documents. The quantity of liquor seized during this period was: 9,970.94 litres of Indian manufactured liquor, 16.5 litres of Goa liquor, 3,116.03 litres of beer, and 13.5 litres of toddy.

A car which was used to illegally transport liquor was seized too. The licences of 27 liquor shops were suspended for violation of Model Code of Conduct during this period, Ms. Francis said.

G. Anuradha, Additional Deputy Commissioner, was present.