Fifty six polling officials from Korba district were today suspended by the District Electoral Officer, Korba, for negligence of duty.

Ashok Agrawal, DEO, Korba,explained that the officials, including presiding officers and polling officers grade I, II and III, have been suspended for negligence in duty for the second and final phase of the Chhattisgarh Assembly elections for 51 constituencies which began this morning.

"These officials did not collect election materials nor they reached to their assigned polling booths... thus they have been suspended," he said.

Agrawal further said that alternate arrangements have been made and polling is going on smoothly.

There are 12,073 polling stations across the eight districts -- Raipur, Bilaspur, Korba, Raigarh, Sarguja, Koria, Jashpur and Janjgir and Champa, where elections began amid tight security.

About 2608 booths have been classified as sensitive and 355 booths as hyper sensitive.