The heavy police deployment with sufficient number of patrol squads and striking forces helped the election authorities maintain peace in all hyper-sensitive booths in Kozhikode district.
Most sensitive booths were within the Nadapuram police sub division limits, where the police had made special arrangements to handle troublemakers.
Two exclusive police control rooms monitored law and order issues in city and rural areas. Besides, nearly 5,000 police officers were on duty. While 46 group patrol squads oversaw polling stations in the city, a 20-member striking squad and 1,269 booth-level policemen guarded rural polling stations.
There were 86 picket posts in the district. Besides, additional police sub divisions were formed under Assistant Commissioners and Deputy Superintendents of Police. Despite the pandemic situation, the police maintained sufficient strength with the support of other armed forces.
As many as 1,000 booths were classified as sensitive in the district. Of them, 915 were in the Kozhikode Rural Police district. In the rural area, Nadapuram had the highest number of sensitive booths at 121. Besides, the election authorities had identified 120 hyper-sensitive booths in district, and 91 of them were brought under webcasting.
District Police Chief (Kozhikode Rural) A. Sreenivas said the election was mostly peaceful except for an isolated incident at Nadapuram. “We will continue our intensified vigil for two more days in the rural areas,” he added.
C.M. Midhun Krishna, the nodal officer for webcam surveillance of hyper-sensitive booths, said all the 91 webcams operated by Akshaya entrepreneurs functioned without hitches. “No major issues were reported in any booth. The recorded visuals will be handed over to the Election Commission,” he informed.
