Mangaluru : The election duty officers are on in full swing with mustering procedures and official’s allotment at Rosario School at Pandeshwar on April 17, Wednesday.

As per the instruction of the Polling officers, all the booth-level officers, presiding officers (PROs), and assistant presiding officers (APROs) reported the sector officers along with the EVMs at 9:30 am.

A sector officer has been instructed to carry an extra Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) to avoid malfunctioning, since he has to look after 30 to 40 booth stations.

The total electorate in the district as per finally published E-rolls on 16-01-2019 is 16,97,417 compared to 15,64,114 in 2014.

Over 21,292 electors are in the age group of 18 to 19 years constitute 1.25% of total electors.

“The commission also allowed enrollment of transgender persons under gender “Others” in the electoral rolls since 2012. The number of electors enrolled as “Others” gender is 99” .

On the polling day, two DCPs, seven ACP/DySP, 16 police inspectors, 37 Police Sub Inspectors, 79 ASIs along with 1,500 staff including home guards and head constables will be part of the bandobast in addition to two companies of central forces, 8 KSRP and 12 CAR platoons.

Total 668 buses arranged to take the duty staffs their assigned destinations. 2230 PROs, 2230 APROs, 590 Route Officers and staff are depated thir duty.

Sector officials have been assigned one to 15 to 20 polls who carry out full responsibility for all related processes in their jurisdictions until the completion of polling.

A large number of Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) buses are being drawn for election duty on Wednesday and Thursday April 18, on election duty. Therefore, the people who depend on buses for travel are advised to make alternative arrangements.

As per information, over 400 KSRTC buses from the district have been assigned for poll duty. Every day, over 389 KSRTC buses leave from Mangaluru division to various destinations. Over 138 buses from two KSRTC depots in the city, and 263 out of 560 buses operating from Puttur division (Puttur, B C Road, Dharmasthala, Madikeri and Sullia) have been drawn for election duty. These buses have been deployed for different centers and also to neighbouring districts.

KSRTC officials however feel that the passengers will not face too much of a problem as buses have been withdrawn from routes where already a large number of buses are operational. They will also be diverting buses to routes where there is shortfall. Therefore the officials are confident that villages as well as towns and cities will not suffer too much on account of shortage of buses.

KSRTC has also decided to introduce additional buses from the city to Mysuru, Bengaluru and other routes on April 21 on the basis of need, as people who come on long weekends by availing holiday on April 20 might want to return, resulting in added rush on available buses.

As no city buses from here have been drawn for election duty, all of them will be moving about normally on polling day. For the state as a whole, 3,314 KSRTC buses out of the total 8,705 buses owned by KSRTC would be placed on election duty.