**Cuttack:** With the dates of simultaneous general elections being announced on Sunday, Cuttack Collector Aravind Agrawal today informed that the election in the district will be held in two phases.
Agrawal said, Cuttack parliamentary constituency constitutes of six assembly constituencies such as Cuttack Sadar, Cuttack-Barabati, Cuttack-Choudwar, Athagarh, Baramba and Banki, where the elections will be held in the third phase.
Remaining three assembly constituencies of Cuttack district, namely Niali, Salipur and Mahanga are part of Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara parliamentary constituencies, where the elections will be held in fourth phase.
The notification of third phase elections for the six assembly constituencies that are part of Cuttack parliamentary constituency will be issued by respective Returning Officer (RO) on March 28, last date for filing nominations will be April 4, scrutiny of the nominations will be done on April 5, last date of withdrawal is April 8 and polls will be held on April 23.
Similarly, the notification for Niali, Salipur and Mahanga assembly constituencies will be issued by respective Returning Officer (RO) on April 2, last date for filing nominations will be April 9, scrutiny of the nominations will be done on April 10, last date of withdrawal is April 12 and polls will be held on April 29.
Agrawal further said the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) has also come into effect after announcement of the election dates yesterday. Different teams have been formed for its enforcement in the constituencies.
A mobile application has also been launched by the Election Commission of India (ECI) for the enforcement of MCC. People can through the application upload photo and video of any violation of the MCC. The name of the application is CVigil, through which one can report the violation as a registered user and also anonymously and the complaint will be disposed within 100 minutes.
Agrawal also informed that there are 2246 booths and till date 20,29,855 voters, including 10,61,862 male, 9,67,740 female and 253 others, have been identified. Names of new voters in Form-6 will be received till 10 days prior to filing of the nominations. The exact number of voters will be freezed on the last day of the nomination.
In order to conduct accessible election for the first time, 43,339 Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) voters have been identified in the district. For them wheelchair facilities will be made available at each booth, vehicles will also be engaged to bring them to the booth and drop them home, two volunteers will be deployed in each booth to help them. Besides, other facilities such as shed, drinking water facility, ramp, toilets, etc will be provided at each booth.
Around 50 Model Booths have been identified in the district which will be showcased for the facilities. Besides, nine booths in nine constituencies have been identified to be led by female polling personnel, said Agrawal.
He also informed that 350 sensitive booths have been identified in the district where Non-CAPF Measures will be adopted. It will not confine to only the sensitive booths but such measures will also be extended to around 1003 booths in the district to ensure a free and fair election, Agrawal added.
