Besides making available more companies of the Railway Protection Force for peaceful conduct of the Lok Sabha elections, the Railways have agreed to help with smooth movement of security forces at stations.
As directed by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the RPF will provide 75 companies for deployment primarily in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. In comparison, only 60 companies were spared for poll duty during the 2009 general election.
Officials estimated that more than 6,000 RPF personnel will be deployed on poll duty — each company roughly comprising 80 personnel.
1,000 coaches
The Railways have agreed to make available about 1,000 coaches — roughly 50 trains — that the MHA and the ECI can use for transporting security forces, staff and poll materials.
Special trains, the Railways claim, are already being run in Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.
