A team of polling personnel, equipped with essential materials, including an additional EVM, on Tuesday set out for one of the most remote polling stations under the Darjeeling Assembly constituency, located at an altitude of around 1,300 metres in the Himalayas.
Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). (File Photo: IANS)
A team of polling personnel, equipped with essential materials, including an additional EVM, on Tuesday set out for one of the most remote polling stations under the Darjeeling Assembly constituency, located at an altitude of around 1,300 metres in the Himalayas.
According to Darjeeling Sub-Divisional Officer B Roy, the polling station No 4 has a total of 191 voters. To reach the booth, the team will have to undertake a trek of over 10 kilometres through difficult hilly terrain.
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Officials said the team will halt on Tuesday night at polling station No 3, Ramman Forest Village Primary School, before proceeding on Wednesday to polling station No 4, Samanden Forest Village Primary School. The two locations are about eight km apart, with no motorable road connectivity, requiring personnel to carry all polling materials on foot.
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Polling for the first phase of the West Bengal Assembly elections is scheduled for 23 April.
Official sources said that while there were earlier three such remote polling stations in the Darjeeling segment, a steady decline in population has reduced the number to just one, where 191 voters will cast their ballots. Although the area previously lacked electricity, power supply has now been restored.
The location falls within a communication “shadow zone”, but the administration is attempting to arrange Wi-Fi connectivity to enable monitoring of the polling process. Central forces, already deployed in the area, will join the polling team to ensure security.
Established in 1971, Samanden Forest Village Primary School is a government-run primary institution under the department of education. The co-educational school, which offers Classes I to IV in English medium, operates from a government building with five classrooms in good condition.
Despite its accessibility by an all-weather road, the school lacks several basic amenities, including a boundary wall, electricity connection, and a reliable source of drinking water. However, it has functional toilets for boys and girls, as well as a playground, reflecting both the infrastructural challenges and resilience of institutions in the remote hills of Darjeeling.
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