Over 6,000 police personnel, drawn from various security agencies, will be deployed for the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections scheduled for May 7.
According to Commissioner of Police B. Shivadhar Reddy, the contingent will comprise 556 assistant sub-inspectors of police and head constables, 1,281 constables from the civil police, 728 home guards, 570 armed reserve officials, eight companies of Central Reserve Police Force, and 10 platoons of the Andhra Pradesh Special Police.
The force will be led by four Additional Deputy Commissioners, nine Assistant Commissioners, 56 inspectors, and 149 sub-inspectors.
“This apart, we will have 1,717 uniformed personnel drawn from various departments such as Central Excise and RTA,” the Commissioner told The Hindu .
According to him, three CRPF companies will be retained post-elections for guarding the strong rooms where the EVMs will be kept.
“The EVMs will be kept in nine locations in the city and the strong rooms will have three layers of security arrangement. While the inner core will be manned by the armed CRPF men, the second layer will be formed by the Armed Reserve personnel, and the outer layer will be guarded by the men from the armed civil police,” he said.
The force will be deployed as per the Election Commission of India guidelines across the seven Assembly segments in 1,717 polling stations situated in 705 locations.
The Police Commissioner said that about 20 per cent of the polling stations had been identified as critical and hyper-critical.
“Every critical station will have at least five armed personnel from the Armed Reserve Police and hyper-critical ones will be manned by six armed CRPF personnel. This apart, one uniformed person will be posted at each booth to handle the queue,” he told The Hindu .
According to him, 120 route mobile squads, each comprising one officer and five constables, will be deployed for brisk movement covering four to five polling stations within a radius of 8 to 10 km.
“This apart, there will be 25 striking force or quick reaction teams and 10 special striking force to oversee the smooth conduct of the polls,” he said.
To facilitate smooth operation, about 400 vehicles will be deployed and 270 high frequency and very high frequency communication sets will form part of the communication system.
