SHILLONG: Urban apathy continues to affect the polling in Shillong compared to the outskirts.
There was lukewarm response to the District Councils elections as there was thin turn out in many of the urban constituencies under KHADC and a few areas under JHADC.
Though the Government had declared Monday as holiday, the polling day, this did not attract the voters in thronging the polling stations to cast their votes in urban centers.
During a visit to various polling stations on Monday at different intervals, it was found that the voters were coming less in numbers to cast their votes.
There were no long queues visible in many of the polling stations in some areas indicating that the voters were lethargic While the Election Department had initiated several steps including aggressive campaigns to attract the voters to come out in large numbers during the Assembly elections which resulted over 88% polling, there was no effort on the part of District Council affairs department to create enthusiasm among the voters and to attract them to the polling booths.
However, an official with the district council affairs department said that the trend was the same during the Assembly elections in urban polling stations.
While the overall percentage of polling for KHADC is 75.70, the lowest was recorded in Nongthymmai (53. 24) and the highest was in Nongshken (85.47) followed by Langrin (85.45).
While Jowai-central with 77.07 registered the lowest polling under JHADC, the highest was Rymbai-Khliehriat (96.77)