In order to spread voter awareness among the residents, the administration organised country’s first metaverse-powered virtual model polling booth, live band among other activities on Saturday at MBD Neopolis Mall, Ferozepur road.

The officials included general observer Divya Mittal, expenditure observers Chetan D Kalamkar and Pankaj Kumar, district election officer (DEO) Sakshi Sawhney among others who participated in the event and urged the residents to exercise their right to vote.

Ludhiana Central assistant returning officer Ojasvi Alankar said the awareness event ‘Ludhiana 70 paar’, was organised by the administration in collaboration with the mall management under Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) programme. The aim is to achieve the target of over 70% voter turnout during the Lok Sabha elections.

India’s first metaverse-powered virtual model polling booth was established for providing a virtual mock polling experience to the participants. The election song was also launched during the event and bhangra was performed by the students of BCM Arya Senior Secondary School, Shastri Nagar. Live band performance was given by Rock Fluid band.

The election observers and administration also urged the residents to make complete use of the website voteforludhiana.in. Through this website, the voters can track the crowd at the polling centres on the day of the election. The information on the website would be updated after every half an hour.

DEO, police chief visit strong rooms, counting centres

District election officer Sakshi Sawhney and commissioner of police Kuldeep Singh Chahal on Saturday visited the strong rooms and counting centres and took stock of the ongoing arrangements.

They were accompanied by officials, including additional deputy commissioners, Amit Sareen, Anmol Singh Dhaliwal, Rupinder Pal Singh, and all the assistant returning officers (AROs) of Ludhiana Parliamentary constituency.

The officials went to various buildings in Punjab Agricultural University where the strong rooms and counting centres would be set up for all the nine assembly segments.

The DEO directed the concerned authorities to keep strict vigil on the EVMs. She also asked the officials to chalk out an appropriate security deployment plan, so that smooth arrangements could be done in advance after the voting. She checked the CCTV cameras installed there and asked the police personnel guarding the strong rooms for extra vigilant rooms. She directed that nobody would be allowed to visit the strong room areas and entry of officials must be logged in a special log book.