Ghaziabad: Nearly 27.5 lakh residents will cast their votes in Ghaziabad in the coming Lok Sabha elections. The district administration said elaborate arrangements have been made for conducting a free and fair poll in the district and the focus now is on increasing the poll percentage of the district.Ghaziabad’s poll percentage in the 2014 Lok Sabha election was 57% whereas the state’s was 65%.District magistrate Ritu Maheshwari said, “We will specifically target those areas where poll percentage was below 50%. Such booths lie in urban areas like Indirapuram, Sahibabad and Ghaziabad.”In 2014, 56% voters had cast their franchise in Loni. This percentage stood at 54% in Ghaziabad, 52% in Sahibabad, 62% in Muradnagar and 64% in Modinagar. The district administration said special care will be taken of 6,419 differently-abled voters, and a wheelchair will be kept at each polling centre. For the first time, the Election Commission has made it compulsory for candidates to reveal their criminal records on TV and in newspapers at least three times during electioneering. In Ghaziabad’s case, this period will be from March 28 to April 9.In another first, the candidates will have to declare total income earned by them and their spouses. Earlier, candidates were required to only declare total income as per the last income-tax return filed. Overall, 17,500 will participate in the election process. There will be 3,033 booths in 694 polling centres, and 212 sector magistrates and 29 zonal magistrates for their supervision. A round-the-clock control room has been set up and two helpline numbers have been issued.

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