As many as 25,000 police personnel will be deployed at counting centres to prevent any untoward incidents, said Director General of Police (DGP) R.P. Thakur.
Police will monitor the situation through e-surveillance, and Section 30 of Police Act and Section 144 CrPc will be in force, Mr. Thakur said at a press conference on Tuesday.
In all, 35 companies of CAPF, 61 companies of APSP, 118 special parties, 67 Armed Reserve Platoons, 21 SPs, 31 Additional SPs, 137 DSPs, 379 CIs, 1,037 SIs, 2,425 ASIs, 6,510 police constables and 2,759 home guards will be deployed for election duty on May 23.
Three-tier bandobust will be arranged at the counting centres. CAPF personnel will be deployed in the innermost ring of the respective counting centres. In the second tier, armed APSP personnel will guard the centres and the district police equipped with body-worn cameras will form security layer on the outer perimeter (third tier).
Similar security has been planned at 62 buildings, 36 strong rooms located in 16 towns in the State, the DGP said.
Pickets arranged
Pickets have been arranged at many places and control rooms were set up at the State police headquarters at Mangalagiri and at the district police offices with necessary surveillance cameras. Barricades were arranged at the counting centres and parking places have been arranged at each centre. Convoys and victory processions were strictly prohibited, Mr. Thakur said.
Some thousands of suspicious persons, troublemongers and persons involved in poll-related violence in the previous elections and on April 11, were bound over, said Additional DG (Law and Order) Ravi Shankar Ayyannar.
“Antecedents of counting agents, who have criminal nature and record, and verified through CCTVs have been submitted to the Returning Officers, and alerted them not to allow those agents into the counting centres,” Mr. Ayyannar said.
About 68 drones, 9,000 communication equipments, 15,000 CCTVs, 1,200 body-worn cameras and five Falcon vehicles would be pressed into service for maintaining law and order during counting, the DGP said and appealed to the public to cooperate with the police for peaceful conduct of the election process.
