With only less than week left for the elections, the city and district police are trying to bridge the wide gap between requirement and availability of non-police personnel for poll duty.
Non-police personnel includes retired police personnel, ex-servicemen, home guards and in service personnel in the prison and forest departments.
Police officers on election duty said that so far 230 ex-servicemen (100 for the city and the rest for Coimbatore district unit) have come forward for poll duty from May 14 to 16. While their numbers is expected to go up in a week’s time, response from retired police personnel seems to be very poor – though they are paid for that duty.
Only five retired policemen have come forward for the election duty in Coimbatore District and none so far in the city. “We spoke with 40 retired policemen in the city, but they cited old age and poor health as the reasons for not turning up,” an officer said. In the district, in addition to age and health a few have claimed that they were employed and hence could not make it for poll duty.
Another reason for better turnout of ex-servicemen was their age, as they have the option to retire as early as 40 years old on completion of 20 years service.
On the other hand for police personnel are 58 years old when they retire. Poor turnout of retired uniformed service personnel may reflect with a stress on the regular policing activities as more persons should be deployed for poll duty.
Police sources in the district police unit said that 2,003 booths under their jurisdiction are located in 839 places – with up to 15 booths in one place. As many as 1,164 non-police personnel are required for poll duty in the district. Similarly, the city police too require a few hundred non-police personnel for poll duty for the 1,122 booths in their jurisdiction.
For making up for the shortage, a police officer in the district unit said that a request for additional allotment will be made to the Inspector General of Police, for Elections, in Chennai. Availability of police and deployment for essential duties at check posts, 15 dams and for works relating to Maoist special unit will be listed out in their request while seeking more personnel for poll duty.
