Elaborate police bandobast in twin-cities

Bhubaneswar, Apr 15:

Elaborate police arrangements have been made for all the 1004 booths -including 157 hyper sensitive, 337 sensitive and 510 normal booths in parts of the Bhubaneswar parliamentary constituency and six Assembly constituencies that come under the Bhubaneswar Urban Police District (UPD), twin city commissionerate police headquarter office sources said.

Similar arrangements have been made for the Cuttack UPD, for three parliamentary constituencies -Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur (part), 15-Kendrapara (part) – and 7 assembly constituencies -Barabati,  Choudwar Cuttack,  Cuttack Sadar,  Banki (part),  Athagarh (part),  Niali (part) and Salipur (part), the sources added.

In Bhubaneswar, UPD 155 locations have been identified as vulnerable and would require special attention.

To ensure security, 40 mobile vehicles have been placed under the charge of one SI/ASI with deployment of one havildar and four sepoys of Odisha Armed Police Force (OAPF).

22 sections of striking forces under all 18 police stations in the Bhubaneswar UPD are being deployed along with 2 platoons of police force at the Police Reserve office as standby, to meet any exigencies.

All the 18 police stations are also being provided with sectoral patrol units, each comprising one Inspector with one havildar and two sepoys.

The EVM strong room  at the BJB (Autonomous) college is being guarded by one platoon of CRPF, 2 platoons of OSAP,  six SIs/ASIs who are under the charge of an ACP.

Similarly, EVM depot has been provided with 5 havildars and 20 constables for the purpose of guarding.

To maintain law and order during counting of votes, one additional DCP, 2 ACPs, 8 Inspectors, 14 SIs/ ASIs, 20 WCs and four platoons of force will be utilised. To supervise the entire police arrangement the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Bhubaneswar with 4 additional DCPs and 9 ACPs have been detailed in Bhubaneswar UPD limits.

As a pre-poll arrangement, 15 SIs/ASIs with 90 constables have been engaged in flying squad duty. As many as 16 SIs/ASIs have been provided as PSOs to election observers.

Arrangements in Cuttack

In Cuttack UPD, of the total 663 booths, 408 have been identified as sensitive and the rest 255 as normal.

In every booth  a constable, a home guard and a sepoy have been deployed. 60 mobile units with one havildar and one sepoy of Armed Reserve Police (APR) under the charge of an SI/ASI have also been detailed. Six motorcycle patrolling units headed by an officer with an APR constable have been introduced, the sources said.

One section of striking force each have been deployed at 21 identified places across 16 police station areas with standby of 3 platoons police force at Reserve office to meet any emergency. Besides, at 10 identified vulnerable places, units with one officer and one section of striking force have been detailed to maintain law and order.

The strong rooms, where the EVMs are stored, are functioning at BOSE campus and Kendriya Vidyalaya, CDA in sector-1 of Cuttack. They have been provided with one platoon of Central Paramilitary Force (CPMF) and an officer each to ensure foolproof security of the strong rooms.

To DCP Cuttack has been entrusted with the task of supervising the entire operation with the assistance of 3 additional DCPs and 10 ACPs. Besides, 18 SIs/ASIs with 4 constables each have been manning the flying squads, the commissionerate sources added.