The Election Commission of India (EC) was conducting vulnerability mapping of Punjab Assembly constituencies in order to take a call on the hyper sensitive or sensitive constituencies for the January 30 elections.

Addressing mediapersons on Wednesday, Chief Election Commissioner of India S Y Quraishi said: “This time, the criteria for vulnerability mapping is different. It will be based on several parameters, including past history of poll violence, high-profile candidates contesting from there, abnormally high or low voting and a particular candidate getting more than 90 per cent of votes.” 

He added: “There are a total of 19, 24 polling booths in the state for 1.74 crore voters. At each polling booth, micro observers will be stationed and video recording will be done. Web cams will also be used in many booths so that people can log see polling in progress online.”

The EC will also appoint 22 IPS, 59 IAS and 43 IRS officers as election observers. While IAS officers will be appointed as general observers, IRS officers will look into expenditure and IPS officers will be responsible for law and order.

 “A special check will also be held on the consumption of drugs and liquor. The Commission already held a meeting with DG (Narcotics), as all parties have complained of liquor and drug problem in the state,” said Quraishi.

He added that this time, no voter slips will be issued by political parties. “The parties will not set up their booths outside polling stations. They have been informed about this and they had agreed. The Bahujan Samaj Party had raised the issue that migrant workers have not been included in the voter’s list. The party had been told that for three days from January 2, one can apply to be included in the list,” said Quraishi.

On channels owned by political parties, he said that if any candidate is being projected on any channel, the EC will put the expenditure as per the channel’s rate list in the candidate’s account. “Also, our monitoring committees will keep a check on paid news.”