In Bihar, amidst unprecedented security arrangements polling is in progress for the first phase of Assembly elections. No untoward incident has been reported so far. The pace of the poll is picking up. As per reports received from the election office, 15 to 20 percent voters have cast their votes after two hours of polling. There are reports of non-functioning of Electronic Voting Machines, EVMs, from some constituencies. Defective EVMs have already been changed. The polling will continue upto 5 p.m. In Simri Bakhtiarpur assembly constituency polling will be upto 3p.m.In the first phase, polling is going on in 47 constituencies spread over eight districts. These are Madhubani, Supaul, Araria, Kishanganj, Purnea, Katihar, Madhepura and Saharsa. Over one crore seven lakh voters will decide the electoral fortune of 631 candidates including 52 women. Important candidates whose fate will be sealed in EVMs today are State Congress Chief Mehboob Ali Kaiser, and three Ministers Vijendra Prasad Yadav, Narendra Narayan Yadav and Renu Kumari.State Director General of Police Neelmani said that jawans of central para-military forces have been deployed on booths for peaceful poll. He said, state's border with Nepal and West Bengal has been sealed to prevent any infiltration of anti social elements. The Director General of Police said Jawans of Special Task Force would keep air surveillance to ensure trouble free polls.Chief Electoral officer Sudhir Kumar Rakesh told that Observers and Micro Observers have been appointed to ensure free and fair polls.10,886 polling booths have been made. Mr. Rakesh said that for the first time the election commission has made an arrangement to live web cast the voting process from 20 percent of the booths directly to be monitored by the district election officers, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer at Patna and the Election Commission in New Delhi. Meanwhile, the Election Commission has issued a list of 14 alternative documents to be accepted by presiding officers during assembly elections in Bihar to verify the identity of voters in case they do not have Electors photo identity card. These alternative documents include Passport, Driving licence, PAN card, Arms licence, Certificate of physically handicap, Freedom fighter identity card, Cast certificate, Pass book of bank or Post Office, Service identity card issued by state or central government offices and job card issued under NAREGA. Property document such as registered deed, Pension document.