Thiruvananthapuram: The city police have categorised 10 polling booths in the city as "vulnerable." Another 36 booths have been listed in the lower security category as "sensitive."

Commissioner of Police Manoj Abraham said 2,800 policemen, including 400 personnel from the Andhra Pradesh Armed Police, would be deployed for election duty in the city. All the booths will have a policeman on security duty. Four armed policemen will be deployed additionally in booths classified as vulnerable and sensitive. There are 638 polling booths in the city.

As many as 260 retired policemen and ex-servicemen have been recruited as `Special Police Officers (SPOs) ' for election duty in the city. Their main task will be to regulate queues at polling stations.

The police have hired 175 jeeps, 54 buses and 34 medium vehicles for election duty. A group patrol headed by a Sub-Inspector will cover eight booths every 15 minutes. The police will use covert video recording to capture all happenings in the vicinity of sensitive and vulnerable booths.

Seventy-six "law and order" patrol comprising armed men will cover every nook and corner of the city. Twelve Circle Inspectors of police with a "striking force" of 30 men and six Deputy Superintendents of Police having 50 armed policemen under their command will monitor the law and order situation. The Commissioner will keep a "striking force" of 100 armed men to be deployed at short notice. The Assistant Commissioner, Control Room, has also been given 100 additional policemen for rapid deployment.

As part of the pre-election security drive, the police have initiated proceedings under section 107 of the Criminal Procedure Code against 162 "history sheeters." As many as 870 pending arrest warrants have been executed so far.

Rural police district

The rural police have 1,491 booths under their jurisdiction. SP, Rural, S. Gopinath said the police would intensify checking of vehicles entering the State from Tamil Nadu on election day.

Fifteen booths in the district have been classified as vulnerable and 54 as sensitive. The rural police have organised 111 group patrols headed by a Sub-Inspector to cover all the polling booths in the area every 15 minutes. Nearly 4,000 policemen, including 300 from Andhra Pradesh police and 100 from the Madhya Pradesh Armed Police, will be deployed in the rural district.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail