Jan 30, 2007: Kalinga Times

Too many sensitive booths in Orissa
KalingaTimes Correspondent

Bhubaneswar: It sounds strange, but true. In the run up to the forthcoming panchayat polls, almost half of the total polling booths in Orissa have been found to be sensitive or hypersensitive booths.
The State Election Commission on Monday revealed that out of the total of 87542 polling booths in the State, as high as 43750 booths were found to be sensitive or highly sensitive.
The Commission indicated that various steps were being taken in those booths to conduct the polls. The polls are scheduled to be held in five phases next month.
The number of sensitive booths could increase further as campaigning had just started gaining momentum with top leaders hitting the field.
According to an official release issued by the Commission, Khurda and Bhardak districts had a high percentage of sensitive booths. While Khurda had 2019 sensitive and highly sensitive booths out of the total of 2617, Bhadrak had 2082 sensitive booths out of the total of 2970 booth.

Kalahandi and Subarnapur districts had a low percentage of sensitive booths. While only 317 of the total 3377 booths in Kalahandi had been declared sensitive, Subarnapur had 414 sensitive booths out of the total of 1358.

The release said that Angul district had 1550 sensitive booths out of the total of 2936 booths, while Bolangir had 1167 booths out of the total of 3527, Balasore had 1088 out of 4354, Bargarh 1876 out of 3401, Boudh 521 out of 880, Cuttack 3573 out of 5473, Deogarh 371 out of 738, Dhenkanal 2190 out of 2821, Gajapati 1160 out of 1526, Ganjam 3409 out of 6943, Jagatsinghpur 1596 out of 3357, Jajpur 2522 out of 4282, Jharsuguda 433 out of 928, Kandhamal 1327 out of 2083, Kandrapara 1448 out of 3624, Keonjhar 1596 out of 3680, Koraput 968 out of 2725, Malkangiri 865 out of 1319, Mayurbhanj 2077 out of 5253, Nawrangpur 1205 out of 2048, Nayagarh 1636 out of 2934, Nuapada 303 out of 1385, Puri 1162 out of 3551, Rayagada 1322 out of 2094, Sambalpur 968 out of 1874 and Sundargarh had 2194 booths sensitive out of the total of 3482.