The Hindu : New Delhi News : Entire police force to be deployed on polling day

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 09, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Entire police force to be deployed on polling day

By Our Staff Reporter

Police Commissioner K.K. Paul addressing at a press conference in New Delhi on Saturday.

NEW DELHI, MAY 8 . With less than 48 hours to go for polling in the seven Lok Sabha constituencies -- and one Delhi Assembly seat -- across the Capital, the police have made all arrangements to ensure that the exercise remains free, fair and peaceful.

Announcing details of the arrangements today, the Delhi Police Commissioner, K.K. Paul, said almost the entire police force, along with 25 companies of Central para-military forces and more than 9,000 home guards from Uttar Pradesh, would be manning over 9,000 polling booths across the Capital on Monday.

In all, there are 2,309 polling stations, 40 of which have been declared hypersensitive, while 202 have been identified as sensitive. One-third of the polling booths fall under the hypersensitive and sensitive categories.

The security arrangements would entail checking of vehicles coming into the Capital and sealing of the borders. Police Gypsies, apart from the entire Police Control Room unit, would be deployed throughout the day and several pickets will be put up across the Capital.

Already, the police have taken care of 165 rallies, 95 small processions, 842 public meetings and 400 padyatras in the run-up to the elections. The police registered 670 cases of violation of the model code of conduct during which 1,976 hoardings, 7,204 banners, 9,705 posters and 169 wall writings were either seized or removed.

Over a thousand people were arrested under various sections, of which 622 were preventive one to ensue that they did not create any disturbance on polling day. The police also registered 2,723 cases under the Excise Act and recovered 33,222 bottles of illicit liquor which were meant to be distributed among voters.

In order to ensure that there are no communication hiccups in the wake of massive deployment of manpower, the police have provided separate frequencies for different units. The engineers handling the electronic voting machines (EVMs) have been given wireless sets with a dedicated frequency. In the Delhi Assembly polls last year, the police had encountered problems when several messages regarding malfunctioning of EVMs were generated on election day as a result of which the network got jammed. "This time we have provided them with dedicated frequency so that it does not interfere with our networks and their response time is also quick," Dr. Paul said. The security arrangements at the counting centres will also be put in place on May 10.

Earlier, the police had held a meeting with representatives of all the political parties on March 26 and a consensus was reached that the model code of conduct would be strictly adhered to.

The entire manpower, including those coming from other States, has been deployed on ground and rehearsals are on. The exercise would be reviewed on the eve of elections and shortcomings plugged.

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