Wary of freak weather and disruption of vehicular traffic due to rains and hill slides, Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) will be flown by choppers to tribal areas of Pangi in Bharmaur Assembly constituency and Kaza in tribal Spiti valley in Mandi Lok Sabha constituency.
"We cannot take the risk by transporting EVMs by road as there is every possibility of disruption of surface connectivity in these remote areas and have decided to send the EVMs by chopper for Mandi Lok Sabha bye-elections slated for June 23," Additional Chief Electoral Officer P L Negi said.
Mandi Lok Sabha constituency, the second largest in the country spread over six districts, has lowest polling station at 1,600 ft height at Dehar in Mandi and highest polling station in the country at Hikkim at an altitude of 14,567 ft.
Hikkim is connected by motorable road from the base on outskirts of Kaza (the headquarters of Spiti) and requires 11 km drive on narrow perilous road to reach the destination.
From three villages, Hikkim polling station has 335 voters, including Langche and Komic, located three km uphill the highest polling station of Hikkim and in spite of geographical isolation the normal polling had been high at 80 per cent or more.
