Polling for gram panchayats in Punjab was underway amid tight security arrangements on Tuesday, officials said here. They said voting for the posts of 'sarpanch' and 'panch' through ballot boxes began at 8 am and would continue till 4 pm. After the polling, the votes will be counted at the polling stations, the officials said. There are 19,110 polling booths, 1,187 of them marked as hyper-sensitive, for the election. There are 13,225 gram panchayats in the state. According to an official, 9,398 gram panchayats will elect 'sarpanch'. The officials said 3,798 candidates for the post of 'Sarpanch' have already been elected unopposed. Elderly people, women and youth were seen standing in queues outside many polling booths in the morning. The elections are being held without symbols of political parties as a consequence of the Punjab Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2024, passed last month by the Vidhan Sabha. There are a total of 1.33 crore registered voters for this election. The