With a day left for the Assembly elections, the police have readied all major safety arrangements and deployment of 7,250 police officers, including para-military and special police personnel, in Kozhikode district.
Considering the huge number of hypersensitive and critical booths, over 4,800 police officers will work in the rural areas of Kozhikode. Kozhikode city will get the services of 2,417 personnel.
According to the election authorities, the Kozhikode Rural police district has 29 critical booths and 401 sensitive booths. Around 850 officials from various para-military forces will offer their services along with the local police in selected rural booths. To keep an eye on areas frequented by suspected Maoists, an anti-Naxal team will camp in the district. It will mainly guard the forest borders.
In Kozhikode city, there are 98 sensitive booths and 14 critical booths. The highest number of critical booths is within the limits of the Elathur police station. There are also 11 sensitive booths within the station limits. For administrative convenience, the number of police sub divisions has been raised to six.
Apart from the deployed teams, two separate striking forces will be kept ready within the Kozhikode City and Kozhikode Rural police district limits. The squads will be controlled directly by the District Police Chiefs of Kozhikode City and Rural.
Unlike the local body elections, there will be more video surveillance squads to closely monitor the movement of voters and party workers near booths. Live webcasting will be done with the support of trained Akshaya entrepreneurs. To avoid technical glitches, a dedicated server will be used for the purpose. There will two control rooms for the police to monitor live feeds from various booths and respond in case of law and order issues.
The presence of armed forces has been ensured in all politically sensitive constituencies like Nadapuram, Kuttiyadi, Perambra, and Vadakara. They have already conducted route marches in the segments. They also extended a helping hand to the local police on Sunday to ensure a trouble-free culmination of the electioneering.
