ECI depends on donkeys to ferry election materials to hills

Dharmapuri, April 23: In this age of high tech equipment, ECI still has to depend on support of donkeys to conduct polling in remote villages in the country.

In Dharmapuri district, election materials including EVMs are being transported by donkeys in two hill station polling booths in Pennagaram Assembly Segment, forming part of the Dharmapuri Lok Sabha constituency.

According to Pennagaram Tahsildar S.K.Kanagaraja, the donkey service was adopted to conduct polling in Yerumalai and Kottur hill villages in Belrampatti forest area in Pennagaram segment.

There are 285 voters including 155 men in Yerumalai and out of the 334 electorate in Kottur, 170 are men. The person guiding the donkey, N.Chinnaraj (57) of Karkur village said he had been operating the service since 1976.

From Rs 40 to Rs 60 per donkey, he is now being paid Rs 2,000 for dropping and receiving election materials from the plains to booth and vice versa, he said.

PTI