Dehradun district witnesses brisk voting, voterturnout recorded at 61%

DEHRADUN: Many parts in Dehradun district witnessed brisk voting on Thursday with voter turnout recording at 61% by 5 pm, sources said.
In several locations like Gururam Rai School Centre of Mothrowala, Bengali Kothi, Rajpur Road, Raipur and Nehru Colony, the people arrived in large number in early morning to cast their vote. The turnout remained high in the first half of the day, but came down in the afternoon hours.
Dehradun district has a total of 10 assembly constituencies, out of which seven – Chakrata, Vikasnagar, Sahaspur, Dehradun Cantt, Rajpur Road, Raipur and Mussoorie fall under Tehri Lok Sabha seat.The remaining three —Dharampur, Doiwala and Rishikesh —are part of Haridwar constituency.
As per the official data, Dharampur saw 47.16% voter turnout till 3pm, Rajpur Road had 47.05%, and Dehradun Cantt saw 48.18% voter turnout.
Whereas Rishikesh saw 50.10% voting, Doiwala had 55.04 %, Mussoorie recorded 51.03%, Raipur 51.30%, Sahaspur 55.20 %, Vikasnagar 54.04% and Chakrata witnessed had 53.14% voter turnout.
Shubham Chaudhary, a resident of Dehradun, said, “It is usually the trend here in Dehradun that maximum voting is witnessed in the first four hours of the day and thereafter the percentage increases around 5pm as people rush to the polling centre in the last minute.”
R V S Pundhir, a resident of Nehru Colony, said for their family members, casting voting is their highest priority and they ensure that one reaches the polling centre as early as possible.
“This time too we went early and became free within 30 minutes. My suggestion for other voters is that on polling day the aim should be to vote first rather than waiting for the last moment,” Pundhir said.
Some high profile politicians were also witnessed casting their vote. CM Trivendra Singh Rawat arrived in Defence Colony to vote, Pritam Singh exercised his franchise at Chakrata.
Meanwhile, confusion prevailed at ‘Sakhi Booths’ as many people thought that the polling booth was meant only for women. The ‘Sakhi Booths’ were set up in places where women voters outnumber the men.
Vandana Rawat, who cast her vote at St Thomas College, immediately asked her husband, Umesh Rawat after the booth officials clarified that men can also vote.
“We went to the booth level officer whether my husband can vote here as the name of the polling booth appeared to be misleading. The officer later clarified that both men and women can vote at Sakhi booths.”
Similar situation was witnessed in Animal husbandry office at Pithoragrah, but the officials resolved the issue after the staff explained it to the people.
As many as 47 Sakhi booths were established in Uttarakhand where five women staffers apart from the Block Level Officers (BLO) were appointed. Among these 49 booths, 10 were in Dehradun, three in Uttarkashi, one in Chamoli, two in Rudraprayag, Tehri, Champawat, Bageshwar and Pauri each, four in Pithoragarh, six in Almora and Nainital each and nine in Udham Singh Nagar.