Nearly 17,000 officials appointed as polling personnel in Coimbatore district

Nearly 17,000 government officials have been appointed as polling personnel in the district for the 2026 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election, District Election Officer and District Collector Pavankumar G. Giriyappanavar said on Monday.

Addressing journalists, he said the Model Code of Conduct came into effect following the announcement of the election. A total of 16,992 polling personnel have been appointed, including a 20% reserve. In addition, around 3,000 staff members will assist them, taking the total number of personnel engaged in election duty to more than 20,000.

As of March 15, the district has 27,14,676 voters (13,08,898 men, 14,05,246 women and 532 third gender voters).

A total of 1,97,991 EPIC cards have been sent for printing and delivered to voters at their homes.

Twenty nodal officers in the rank of District Revenue Officer have been appointed to coordinate election-related work across the district.

To monitor compliance with the Model Code of Conduct, 90 flying squad teams and 90 static surveillance teams have been constituted, with nine teams deployed in each Assembly constituency. In addition, 10 video surveillance teams, one for each constituency, have also been formed.

The district has sufficient Electronic Voting Machines, including 8,343 ballot units, 5,200 control units and 5,572 voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) units, the Collector said.

Regarding electoral roll management, 23,208 applications were received under Form 6 as of March 15. Of these, 19,075 have been disposed of, while 4,133 remain pending. Under Form 6A, 34,662 applications were received, of which 34,298 have been disposed of and 364 remain pending. Under Form 8, 19,193 applications were received, with 15,177 disposed of and 4,015 pending.

The public has been advised not to carry cash exceeding ₹50,000 without valid documentation. Cash above this limit without supporting documents, as well as goods transported without proper records, will be seized by flying squad and static surveillance teams.

To review and release seized cash or materials after verification, a District Grievance Committee has been constituted at the Collectorate under the chairmanship of Additional Collector Sanket Balwant Waghe.

A 24-hour control room has also been established at the Collectorate to receive complaints related to violations of the Model Code of Conduct. Complaints can be registered through the toll-free number 1800-425-0086 or via the cVIGIL mobile application. The Collector said complaints received through these channels would be addressed within 100 minutes.