The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : ‘Shady’ candidates under police surveillance

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Sunday, Nov 22, 2009
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

‘Shady’ candidates under police surveillance

Teams to tail those with criminal background

HYDERABAD: Commissioner of Police B. Prasada Rao has assured people that the city police would make every effort to conduct the GHMC elections in a peaceful manner.

Participating in a meet the press programme on Saturday, Mr. Rao exuded confidence that there would be no untoward incidents on the polling day. “There are some general alerts about possible disturbances in sensitive and hyper sensitive polling stations. However, we have made adequate security arrangements”, Mr. Rao assured.

Answering a query, Mr. Rao made it clear that the police would not be checking the identity cards of voters. “The election officials would do this job. If we have any specific information, we would check. Otherwise we do not want to inconvenience people.” He warned the contestants who have criminal background saying that they would be under surveillance and shadow teams would tail them continuously till the polling time is over. He said 6130 weapons were deposited by the license holders. Some more weapons are still to be deposited, but the licensees could be out of the city, he surmised.

The city police chief dismissed allegations that police failed to check distribution of money and liquor. “In the last general elections Rs. 32 crores were seized during inspections. But, we observed that most of the money seized was meant for personal use like marriages and purchase of houses and not for distribution. We did not want to be a nuisance for general public this time,” he said.

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Andhra Pradesh