1,100 licenced arms deposited with Police; 20 rowdy-sheeters banished from Mysuru

Mysore/Mysuru: The conduct of elections involves elaborate security management, which includes not just the security of polling personnel, polling stations and polling materials, but also the overall security of the election process.

Central Armed Police Forces, Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) or Paramilitary Forces are deployed to supplement the local Police force in ensuring a peaceful and conducive atmosphere for the smooth conduct of elections in a free, fair and credible manner.

As part of their duty manual, the Paramilitary forces have been deployed well in advance for area domination, route marches in vulnerable pockets, point patrolling and other confidence-building measures to reassure and build faith in the minds of the voters, especially those belonging to the vulnerable sections.

In Mysuru District alone, over 3,000 security forces including 800 personnel of Paramilitary Forces from 10 units and the rest drawn from various wings of the Police like City Armed Reserve (CAR), District Armed Reserve (DAR), Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP), Mounted Police, Traffic Police, Women Police, the city and district Police units and Home Guards. 

The Paramilitary Forces have been inducted well in time for undertaking area familiarisation and hand-holding with local forces and all other standard security protocols for movement, Model Code of Conduct enforcement activities, etc. in these areas have been strictly adhered to. They have been deployed across the 54 check-posts for 24X7 vigilance.

The conduct of these security forces and the routine happenings at the borders and other areas are continuously being monitored by a dedicated team of officers who are stationed inside a room (a sort of control room) at the DC Office. These check posts are connected to CCTV cameras where the visuals are beamed on the screens in the control room.

Since Mysuru falls under the Expenditure-Sensitive Constituency category and the district roads lead to 11 Constituencies and two State Borders, security has been beefed up at the borders, check posts within the Constituencies and also within Mysuru city to prevent the movement of illegal cash and freebies used for voter inducement.

On the eve of the elections, these security forces and the Police must take position and control of the respective polling stations and will be responsible for safeguarding the polling stations and for providing security to the electors and polling personnel on the poll day.

Besides, these forces will secure the strong rooms where Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPATs) are stored till the counting process ends and the results are declared.

As part of ensuring order, the Mysuru district and the city Police have banished 20 rowdy-sheeters and have been sent to other districts and one rowdy-sheeter, who has directly been involved in disturbing peace, has been sent to prison.

Over 1,100 licenced weapons of the general public have been deposited under the supervision of the Deputy Commissioner of Police and these weapons will be handed over only after the poll process is completed.

Apart from the general security duties during the election, the security forces and the Police have the responsibility of providing a security blanket to national-level leaders, especially                                                            those who are under the Z Plus category security.