Hindustan Times (Ranchi)

MCD elections: After police checks, 700 ‘critical’ polling stations identified, to get amped security

A SENIOR OFFICER SAID A THOROUGH ASSESSMENT OF POLLING STATIONS AND THEIR POSSIBLE LOCATIONS HAS ALREADY BEGUN

- Paras Singh paras@hindustant­imes.com

State Election Commission (SEC) and Delhi Police have identified around 700 critical polling stations that will require additional police protection, a senior SEC official said on Sunday.

“Based on inputs received from Delhi Police and in accordance with Election Commission of India norms, around 700 polling locations have been identified as critical so far. We have also sent a requisitio­n for 170 Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) companies for the smooth and orderly conduct of the upcoming elections,” the SEC official said.

Municipal elections are scheduled to be held in the Capital on December 4 and votes counted on December 7.

This year, the Capital will have 13,665 polling booths.

During the 2017 elections, 799 booths in the city were marked sensitive while 208 booths were marked “hypersensi­tive”.

An SEC official said that the vulnerabil­ity of booths is judged on various factors including topography, history of polling, cases of violence and population base.

In the past elections, the sensitive polling booths list has included stations from areas like Okhla, Shaheen Bagh, Bawana, Narela, Trilokpuri, Babarpur and others.

Officials of SEC said the 170 CAPF companies will be deployed in two phases.

“The first phase of deployment will start immediatel­y after the nomination process. Police will carry out area domination marches and tap movement of illicit liquor, arms and money at interstate borders.

Some quick response teams (QRTs) will also be formed,” the official said, adding that during the second phase, deployment will be carried out around strongroom­s, polling stations, electronic voting machine (EVM) stores and as well as other critical locations.

On November 9, a joint meeting was called by SEC to review the overall election preparatio­ns with the commission­er of police Sanjay Arora, officials from the ministry of home affairs and Delhi chief secretary Naresh Kumar. Delhi Police are also expected to deploy nearly 45,000 of their own personnel during the elections.

A senior officer of Delhi Police said that a thorough assessment of polling stations and their possible locations and premises has already begun, considerin­g the fact that these are the first major elections to be held in Delhi after the riots in February 2020.

“All deputy commission­ers of police (DCPs) have been asked to provide minute details of sensitive and hypersensi­tive booths in their districts. On the basis of their reports, the headquarte­rs will decide the proportion of deployment of forces in different localities,” he said, asking not to be named.

He added that if needed, police personnel from other states may also be deployed to ensure fair polls.

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