Over 56,000 cops, paramilitary personnel to keep guard in city
Over 56,000 Delhi Police and paramilitary personnel will man polling booths and keep guard in the city when Delhi votes in the municipal elections on Sunday.
The paramilitary personnel will be deployed at the 13,022 polling booths while Delhi Police will be keep an eye on ‘mischief mongers’ in surrounding areas.
An additional 20,000 home guards will be deployed to ensure law and order in the city on that day.
A total of 4,748 polling booths have been marked as ‘sensitive’ and ‘hyper-sensitive’. A senior police officer said personnel will be deployed in civil clothes in and around the sensitive and hyper-sensitive polling booths.
These booths were identified on parameters that included the number of cases registered in the area, demographic composition and the history of areas during previous polls, said the officer.
The booths were marked as sensitive in consultation with the election commission.
South district tops the list with 585 sensitive booths and with 114, Shahdara district is at the bottom of the list.
South-East district has 382 hyper-sensitive booths, the highest whereas North-West district has the lowest with 15.
Some prominent hyper-sensitive booths are located in Tughalakabad, Jamia Nagar, Sangam Vihar in South-East Delhi, Seemapuri in Shahdara, Seelampur in North-East Delhi, Adarsh Nagar, Bharat Nagar in North-West Delhi, Karol Bagh, Patel, Chandni Mahal in Central Delhi and Najafgarh, he added.
“Our staff have been briefed and we have held multiple meetings with returning officers. We have been acting against criminals over the past few weeks,” said Dependra Pathak, Delhi Police’s chief spokesperson.
Over the last four weeks, the police recovered 50,419 illegal liquor bottles, most of them meant to be distributed ahead of the polls, said the officer.
Under the Excise Act, police registered 267 cases in this period and arrested 254 persons.
Police said they registered 265 cases under the Delhi Prevention of Defacement of Property Act. “We seized 625 posters, 358 banners and 273 hoardings after receiving complaints of defacement,” said a senior officer.