Security arrangements for the Assembly polls on April 13 have been finalised and the State police were confident of handling the situation, Director-General of Police Bholanath said on Friday.
Equal security would be provided to all booths across the State, he told reporters after conducting a review meeting with top police officers of the Central Zone at the office of the Commissioner of Police here.
A total number of 240 companies of Central paramilitary forces, comprising over 16,000 men and officers, would be deployed across the State for election duty in addition to the police and non-police personnel from the State.
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Over 57,000 police personnel from the State and more than 32,000 non-police personnel would be drafted on the day of election. The DGP said over 1.15 lakh personnel – police, paramilitary and non-police all put together – would be deployed on the polling day.
Mobile parties were constituted and each team would be entrusted with the task of supervising two to five booths allotted to them. The mobile parties would comprise paramilitary personnel as well. There were in all 54, 314 booths across Tamil Nadu, he said.
Mr. Bholanath said adequate steps would be taken to maintain law and order so that citizens could exercise their franchise in a free and peaceful manner. “All my officers are confident of handling the situation”. Counting centres would be provided bandobust, he added.
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Speaking to reporters in MaduraiI, he said all polling booths were important or critical in some aspect or the other.
Election cases
Though the exact number of cases filed against various political parties for poll-related violations was not available, he said that in many districts such as Theni and Ramanathapuram they have even got conviction for those found guilty were convicted for offences. Further, to a pointed query, Mr. Bhola Nath said “my impression is that in the last 10 days, grave offences across the State had dipped.” This may be due to several factors including tight vigil carried out by the police round-the-clock.
Inspectors General of Police (south zone) Manjunatha, P. Kannappan (Commissioner of Police, Madurai city), DIGs of Police Amal Raj (Ramanathapuram Range), Sandeep Mittal (Madurai Range) and Sanjay Mathur (Dindigul Range), Superintendents of Police and DCPs from Madurai city – J.Rajendran, V.Jeyashri and K.P.Senthil Kumari participated.