MANGALORE: The Police Department will work in tandem with other government departments to ensure a free and fair election in Ullal Assembly constituency, Additional Director-General of Police (Law and Order) S.M. Bidari has said.

People and representatives of political parties need not harbour doubts about the peaceful conduct of the election, he said.

Briefing presspersons here on Wednesday about the security arrangements for the byelection, Mr. Bidari said more than 1,000 police personnel, including four companies of the Central Industrial Security Force and five platoons of the Karnataka State Reserve Police, would be deployed.

Although the byelection was scheduled for June 2, security arrangements would be in place from Sunday, especially in sensitive areas of the constituency, he said.

As many as 1,61,070 people, including 81,070 women, are expected to cast their vote in the election. A total of 140 polling booths will be set up across six police station limits: Ullal, Konaje, Mangalore Rural (Kankanady), Mangalore East (Kadri), Mangalore South (Pandeshwar) and Panambur.

Of the 140 booths, 58 have been declared hypersensitive, 70 sensitive, and the rest normal.

A maximum of 67 polling booths would come under Ullal police station limits, 25 under Konaje, 24 under Mangalore South, 18 under Mangalore Rural, five under Panambur and one under Mangalore East, Mr. Bidari said. Security arrangements had been based on the classification of the polling booths and deployment would be made accordingly, he said.

Each booth, even those classified normal, would have an armed police constable. In addition, there would be 25 mobile patrols, including one for every six booths. Besides, seven special striking force comprising KSRP/CISF platoon would be deployed for every 24 booths, Mr. Bidari said.

Police pickets would be in place in 21 sensitive places in the Assembly constituency from Sunday. The Panambur sub-division Deputy Superintendent of Police would supervise the entire security arrangements under the overall guidance and direction of the Superintendent of Police, Mr. Bidari added.

Inspector-General of Police (Western Range) H.N. Sathyanarayana Rao, Superintendent of Police B. Dayananda and Additional Superintendent of Police B.S. Lokesh Kumar were present.

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