The sweltering heat across the State not only took lives out of a few party workers or sympathisers at election rallies but also sent some police personnel to hospitals.
The State police are literally feeling the heat of the summer coupled with the acute shortage of strength in the forceand unprecedented deployment of manpower at public meetings.
With over 21,000 vacancies, mostly at the level of constables, the Police Department has sought over 400 companies of Central para-military forces for election security.
On Wednesday, top officials held discussions with R.C. Tayal, Director-General of National Security Guard , on the security of VVIPs during poll campaign. According to police sources, unprecedented security arrangements are being made for the visit of Ms. Jayalalithaa during her campaign meetings. An officer in the rank of an Additional Director-General of Police, three Inspector-Generals of Police, half-a-dozen DIGs and about two dozen SPs are being deployed for her meetings. “Aleast 3,000 police personnel are being deployed even as the AIADMK leader is reaching the venue by helicopter. The police are mobilised from neighbouring districts and Tamil Nadu Special Police battalions. Though Ms. Jayalalithaa does not like traffic being blocked during her visits, the arrangements are made much to the discontent of people in the area,” a senior police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.
Several hours before the arrival of the VVIP, hundreds of police personnel are posted around the venue. At the Virudhachalam public meeting, at least five police personnel, including women police, had to be hospitalised after they swooned in the scorching heat, the sources said.
“Going by ‘Z-Plus’ scale of security, it is mandatory that armed guards are deployed at the venue 12 hours or 24 hours ahead of the event. But mobilising 3,000 or more police personnel is not required at all. It can always be justified citing threat or some other reason, but we have not seen such a massive deployment of force before,” the official said. Another official said the AIADMK chief preferred to fly by helicopter to nearby places only to avoid inconvenience to public .
