Candidates would be not be allowed to move in the divisions other than those they are contesting from on the day of GHMC elections, the police said on Friday.
Briefing newsmen about the securing arrangements for the civic polls to be held on Monday, the Hyderabad Police Commissioner, B. Prasada Rao, said the decision was taken to ensure smooth conduct of the polls. For the first time, the city police would avail the services of the OCTOPUS, the special wing raised for anti-terrorist operations, by keeping three of its ready to tackle any emergency.
Over 20,000 policemen, including three companies of Rapid Action Force and nearly 9,000-plus uniform personnel from outside, would oversee security. Armed pickets are being posted at 581 sensitive and 343 hyper-sensitive areas to ensure the elections are incident-free. Seventy three shadow teams would keep an eye on trouble-mongers.
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In addition to five special striking force teams, 282 striking force teams would be kept ready to tackle any eventuality covering all 102 division, 3,262 polling stations and 1,391 polling centres. Mr. Rao said 388 mobile patrolling parties would continuously move in all the divisions. Among the 9,000-plus forces being drawn from the districts are personnel of the Excise, the Special Protection Force and Forest departments.
All the history-sheeters, barring some who were out of view, were bound over. Out of the 587 non-bailable warrants, 38 were executed. No serious election code violation incidents were reported anywhere. “From the date of notification everything went smoothly so far. Hopefully, everything passes of peacefully,” Mr. Rao said.