Three government employees have died due to different ailments while performing their poll duties in Himachal Pradesh. The deceased include presiding officer Vaneet Kumar who was a PGT at government senior school at Sapri in tribal Kinnaur district, homeguard jawan Devi Singh who was resident of Chandera village in Arki Tehsil of Solan district and polling officer Lol Ram who was a junior technician and was resident of Sajla village in Manali tehsil of Kullu district. The Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said that the government is with the family members of the deceased in this hour of grief. An ex-gratia of Rs 15 lakh each has been announced to the next of the kin of the deceased persons.
Shyam Saran Negi, a 102-year-old voter who also participated in the 1951-52 general elections which were the country's first, cast his ballot at a picturesque hamlet in Kinnaur district. "I have never missed an opportunity to vote," Negi told reporters in Kalpa. In 1951, Negi, a retired schoolteacher, was on an election duty and exercised his franchise in Chini constituency - later renamed Kinnaur. This time he cast his 31st vote. He has voted in 17 parliamentary and 14 Assembly polls.
The world's highest polling station at 15,256 feet in Tashiganag village of Himachal recorded an unbelievable, 132 per cent voter turn out -- all valid votes. Against merely 49 registered voters figuring in the village electoral roll, a total of 65 voters had cast their votes till 3 pm at the Tashigang polling booth. The unbelievable spike in the poll percentage was attributed to the desire of many poll officials, deployed at polling booths in the Tashiganag village and other nearby areas to cast their votes at the world's highest polling station.
Located at an altitude of 10,000 feet and around 350 km from state capital Shimla, voters at Geu village in Lahaul and Spiti district boycotted the Lok Sabha poll. "We have to take the decision as none of the governments have found a permanent solution to frequent floods due to a nearby nullah here," a villager said. An election officer said, there are 167 voters registered at the village and none of them have voted till afternoon. Only five votes have been cast at the Geu polling station, that too were cast by the poll staff, he said.
Before proceeding to his bride's village for his marriage, bridegroom Anil, 28, of Kothi village near Manali, led his entire 'barat' to the polling booth number eight in the city and cast his vote, besides making his wedding companions too do the same. Decked in his wedding attire, complete with ornamental headgear, Anil reached the polling booth to a pleasant surprise of election officials, security personnel and fellow voters in the queue and cast his vote. Anil cast his vote before proceeding for his marriage, said a district election official, adding the groom reached the polling with many of his 'baratis'.
