Voting Day: Police and security help people

Report by Karthik Rajaraman

Sakthivel is busy showing people to their polling booths. He is one of the 30,000 CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) officers sent to the state to secure the elections.

He is stationed at Sri Venkataramana Primary School, Dr. Rangachari Road, Abhiramapuram. Here, polling booths number 48, 49 and 50 have been set up. "Lots of old people have turned up to vote", says Azhagu, the security guard to the school.

"We opened at 7'o clock in the morning. Voting will go on till 6:00 pm.", says Sakthivel. "To enable people with disabilities to vote, we have set up wheelchairs." he adds.

Though he is new to Chennai, Sakthivel is able to direct people who have mistaken their polling booths. " This morning alone, close to 1,500 people have turned up for voting. Of these, senior citizens are more then youngsters.", says Azhagu.

75-year-old Swaminathan proudly holds up his inked finger. He was among the many senior citizens who turned up to vote in Abiramapuram. " My son helped me to come here and vote", says the septuagenarian.

"The police officers stationed in Mylapore were very helpful." he says. "We went to the wrong polling booth twice and were redirected here by the police officers who were there."

"We came here around 10 and were done voting within the next 5 minutes," said Swaminathan.