[Amina Nabam]
Every election we have heartwarming stories of polling teams reaching polling stations in remote areas, especially those that are inaccessible by road,and polling personnel having to walk for days together, carrying the EVMs and other election materials, facing various hardships during their movement.
This narrative, however, is about the postal ballots (PB) from Dibang Valley which had to undertake a long journey to reach the CEO’s office in Itanagar for exchange with other districts.
The date of the PB exchange for all the districts was fixed on 26 April, and they were to be brought physically by the nodal officers of PB of the respective districts to Nirvachan Bhavan, Itanagar.
The Dibang Valley team was scheduled to leave Anini for Itanagar on 24 April, but due to incessant rainfall and landslides along the Anini-Roing highway, there were road blockages since the evening of the 23rd. Many vehicles were stranded on the road and people had to spend the night in their vehicles. And on 24 April, a major portion of the Anini-Hunli road was washed away near Awali village, making any vehicular movement impossible.
So, the team decided to leave for Itanagar on the 25th by crossing the block point on foot and travellingonward in the reserve vehicle arranged by the returning officer (RO) on the other end of the block point.
The weather was clear and sunny on the morning of 25 April, and the PB team left Anini in a cheerful mood, determined to reach Itanagar anyhow. However, after crossing Etalin, they found debris, rocks and mudslides at various locations, and with all communication networks down, there was no way to reach the NHIDCL authorities for road clearance. A Good Samaritan named Eney Mega of Ryanli village helped clear many minor roadblocks with his private earthmover and the team was somehow able to reach New Anaya. On reaching New Anaya, a village 20 kms from the block point, the vehicles could not move any further as the road had been completely washed off.
Some members of the PB team, along with the district disaster management officer and the Arzoo circle officer, decided to walk on foot to assess the situation of the road ahead and check the feasibility of transporting the PB trunks across the block point.However, it was found that the roads were washed off completely at five locations between New Anaya and Awali, in addition to several rockslides and mudslides. Therefore, keeping in mind the safety of the PB trunks which contained postal ballots for 22 districts, the team decided to head back to Anini before the weather turned bad again.
The RO, on receiving the ground report from the team, sent a message to the chief electoral officer(CEO) in Itanagar, requesting him to send a helicopter for the PBs to be lifted from Anini for exchange the next day. On 26 April, a special sortie was arranged for the PB team by the CEO’s office and the civil aviation department. The PB team took off from Anini at 12 pm and reached the Naharlagun helipad at 3 pm, from where they were escorted by the Naharlagun and Itanagar police safely to Nirvachan Bhavan for the exchange.
On completion of the PB exchange, the Dibang Valley team moved in the convoy with the Lower Dibang Valley (LDV) PB team, and was escorted upto the district boundary by the LDV police. The team,under the security of the Dibang Valley police, then moved ahead to Anini on the newly constructed temporary roads by the NHIDCL, and safely deposited the 61 postal ballots in the district’s strongroom, in the presence of the RO and representatives of the contesting candidates, thus ending the long journey they took for the safety of the PB trunks whilst risking their own lives.
Dibang Valley may be one of the least populated districts and we might have had the least number of PBs cast. However, the measures taken by each stakeholder, right from the CEO’s office to the district level, in order to ensure safe transportation of the cast PBs goes to prove the importance of every single vote in electing our representatives. Also, the cooperation received not only from various government agencies but also from private individuals during the entire movement of the team,right from Anini to Itanagar and back to Anini, is in itself a statement of the fact that every organisation and individual is responsible for successful conduct of smooth and transparent elections.
The office of the district election officer and the people of Dibang Valley are grateful in particular to the CEO’s office, the nodal officers (PB) and police personnel of LDV, besides to the NHIDCL, the civil aviation department, and our Good Samaritan Eney Mega, for helping the team successfully accomplish the task on time when it seemed near impossible.(The writer is the nodal officer (PB) for Dibang Valley district and is currently posted as Circle Officer, Etalin)
