A meeting with representatives of recognized political parties was held here today under the chairmanship of District Election Officer cum Deputy Commissioner Shimla Anupam Kashyap regarding the selection of counting centers in district Shimla for the Lok Sabha elections 2024.
The District Election Officer said that in the Lok Sabha General Election 2019, the counting of votes was done at Government College Dhami (Shimla Rural). Recently, the college building was declared unsafe due to land subsidence around the college, after which Government Senior Secondary School Shoghi was proposed as the new counting centre, but it was not found suitable later.
Keeping this in mind, it had been proposed that the counting of votes in the Lok Sabha elections 2024 be done at the sub-division level on the lines of the Assembly Elections 2022. Apart from this, it has also been proposed that the counting of postal ballot papers and ETPBS votes of Lok Sabha Parliamentary Constituency Shimla-4 (Scheduled Caste) be done at the Government (Girls) Model Senior Secondary School, Portmore.
Anupam Kashyap said that in the Lok Sabha elections 2024, it has been proposed that the counting of votes of 60-Chaupal Assembly Constituency will be held at Hall-2 of the first floor of the Science Block of Government Senior Secondary School Chaupal and for 61-Theog Assembly Constituency, the counting will be held in the examination hall of Government Industrial Training Institute Jais.
Similarly, the counting of votes of 62-Kasumpti Assembly Constituency will be held in the auditorium of Government Model Senior Secondary School Chhota Shimla and that of 63-Shimla Urban Assembly Constituency in room number 205 of Government Girls Senior Secondary School Portmore.
He said that the counting of votes of 64-Shimla Rural Assembly Constituency will take place in room number 16 of Government College Sanjauli and counting of 65-Jubbal-Kotkhai Assembly Constituency will be held in the auditorium of Thakur Ramlal Government (Students) Senior Secondary School, Jubbal. Likewise, counting of 67-Rohru (Scheduled Caste) Assembly Constituency is proposed to be held in the new building of Government Polytechnic College, Rohru.
Apart from this, strong rooms have also been set up in the proposed counting centers for the storage of EVMs and VVPATs in all the assembly constituencies of the district, for which all kinds of arrangements have also been put in place.
Additional District Magistrate (Protocol) Jyoti Rana, Sub Divisional Magistrate (Shimla Urban) Bhanu Gupta, Tehsildar Election Rajendra Sharma and representatives of various recognized political parties were also present in the meeting.