More than 6,000 police, paramilitary, home guards, ex-servicemen and trainee policemen have been deployed for polling duty in Coimbatore city and district on May 16.
While this would be instrumental in peaceful polling in the 10 Assembly segments in the district, this has also put a stress on the district police unit where the existing strength is very less. This will have its impact on the regular policing duties on the outskirts of the city for the next three days.
A police officer said there are 2,003 polling booths in 839 polling stations in rural Coimbatore. This includes more than 100 booths in Avinashi and Udumalpet Assembly constituencies that are predominantly located in the nearby Tirupur district.
“There should be at least one policeman in each poling station. There are 839 such locations in the district (excluding the city). We need as many policemen or women there. We have only 539 policemen for deployment for poll security arrangements,” the police officer said. This is in addition to other mandatory poll-related security arrangements.
The officer added that this strength was obtained by pulling out a major share of the policemen and women from the more than 30 police stations and other special units of the district police. This leaves only one policeman and a sentry at every police station, the officer said and admitted that this has almost made it impossible for investigating cases and attending to routine patrol and court duties.
According to the officer, situation was worse during the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 when non-police personnel such as the youth brigade alone were available at police stations in Rural Coimbatore. “Peaceful conduct of the election is our priority. All other cases – though important – could be taken up only after elections,” a senior police officer added.
To make up the shortage the district police have got 300 policemen from Coimbatore City Police.
On Saturday, personnel on security duty in the district police limits were sent to the offices of the respective returning officers from where they will be sent to the respective polling stations on Sunday evening.
Those to be deployed for security arrangements on May 16 in the district (excluding the city police limits) include 1,062 policemen, 141 police officers (above the rank of sub-inspector), 648 Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel, 175 personnel from Tamilnadu Special Police Battalion(TSP), 267 trainee policemen and sub-inspectors, and 300 Home Guards and 800 non-police personnel such as NSS volunteers and ex-servicemen.
In the four Assembly segments under the jurisdiction of the city police, 3,050 police and other uniformed service personnel will be deployed for the security arrangements in the 1,122 booths in the city.
It includes 1,509 police, 550 Armed Reserve, 95 TSP and 288 Central Armed Police Force personnel, 540 Home Guards and ex-servicemen and 66 trainee sub-inspectors and policemen.
The city police have also sent 200 personnel to Namakkal district for election security arrangements.
