DERGAON, May 5 - Defence personnel of the 142nd battalion of CRPF deployed at Jonaki Nagar, Golaghat and in the bordering areas of Assam-Nagaland as a neutral force exercised their franchise as service voters for the first time in the general elections of 2019.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) for the first time provided a special facility to the serving troops deployed in far-flung remote areas.
To execute the tag line of ECI �No voter to be left behind� the ECI provided the facility of downloading of the ballots online for service voters at a designated centre and then the ballots needed to be posted to the concerned returning officers of the constituencies where the service personnel hailed from.
An Inspector of the 142nd CRPF battalion Ratan Kumar Ghose told this correspondent that the 800 personnel of the battalion casted their votes for the first time under this new procedure. The process was completed from April 11 to 29.
�The Commandant of the 142nd Battalion CRPF, Om Prakash initiated the vote casting and that was followed by the 800 personnel of different ranks at the special centre designated by the ECI at the headquarter at Jonaki Nagar, Golaghat�, he said.
�This step of the ECI makes voting by troops at their work places simple and they can now actually participate in nation building by shaping the future of the nation�, Ghose said.
