The Police Department is readying its officers to implement a multi-pronged pre-poll security strategy in the entire district spanning both Khammam and Mahabubabad Parliamentary constituencies to ensure incident-free Lok Sabha elections.
Of the total seven Assembly constituencies in the district, Bhadrachalam, Pinapaka and Yellandu fall under the Mahabubabad LS constituency and the remaining two – Kothagudem and Aswaraopeta – form part of Khammam LS constituency.
Taking a cue from the smooth conduct of the Assembly elections in December last, the Police Department has devised a uni-focal strategy with an emphasis on inter-district and inter-State coordination between various wings of the police and Central paramilitary forces to prevent untoward incidents in the Left-Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected areas during the election period.
The strategy contains preventive measures such as area domination, combing, vehicle-checking, cordon-and-search operations, besides intensifying surveillance, binding down the trouble-mongers and issuing non-bailable warrants, among others. The ST-reserved Bhadrachalam Assembly segment shares little over 100-km border with south Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, a Maoist hotbed. It has the highest number of LWE-affected polling stations due to its geographical proximity to the strife-torn areas of Chhattisgarh.
Of the total 155 polling stations affected by the LWE in the district, a staggering number of 135 LWE-affected polling stations are located in Bhadrachalam Assembly segment. An inter-State coordination meeting involving the senior police officials of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha was held at Sarapaka near Bhadrachalam a fortnight ago.The meeting mooted a collaborative strategy to ensure smooth conduct of the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections in the respective States and strengthening the surveillance in the LWE-affected areas and also to curb the flow of money and liquor during the elections.
As part of the stepped up surveillance and area domination operations, the Charla police nabbed three Chhattisgarh-based alleged Maoist militia members on Tuesday night and an alleged “Maoist courier” on Thursday in Charla mandal, the police sources said.
Critical polling stations
As many as 359 polling stations in Khammam LS constituency have been identified as critical after vulnerability assessment and special bandobust arrangements would be made at such polling stations, said Y. Nagi Reddy, IGP, Telangana North Zone. He was speaking to mediapersons after holding a review meeting on security arrangements for the ensuing elections along with Collector and District Election Officer R.V. Karnan on Friday.
Khammam Police Commissioner Tafseer Iqbal, Bhadradri-Kothagudem SP Sunil Dutt and others were present.
