Mangaluru, May 27: Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner A B Ibrahim said that in preparation of the gram panchayat elections - 2015 scheduled to be held on Friday in Dakshina Kannada and other districts in the state, various security arrangements would be in place to ensure safe, free and fair elections in the district.
He said that the day of voting had been declared as a ‘dry’ day and sale of alcohol had been prohibited in the district on Friday.
Speaking about security arrangements during elections in Mangaluru City Police Commissionerate limits on Friday, DCP Vishnuvardhana N said that there were a total of 366 polling booths in 59 gram panchayats in the commissionerate limits, out of which 51 booths had been designated as hyper-sensitive booths and 154 booths had been designated as sensitive polling booths. A total of 59 sector mobiles had been assigned, along with installation of 20 CCTV cameras in sensitive areas, he informed.
He said that around 400-500 police personnel would be deployed in the police commissionerate limits, including 2 KSRP platoons, 4 ACPs, 118 ASIs, 220 Home Guards, 59 PSIs and 264 police constables, as precautionary measures.
DK Superintendent of Police S D Sharanappa said that there were a total of 880 polling booths in the district limits, out of which – 65 booths were in naxal-affected areas, 139 booths designated as hyper-sensitive booths and 216 had been designated as sensitive polling booths. A total of 61 sector mobiles and 15 checkposts have been assigned in the district, he said, adding that anti-naxal combing operations had been conducted in naxal-affected areas in the recent past.
He said that Anti-Naxal Force (ANF) personnel would continue to conduct combing operations until the voting process is completed. Armed police personnel will be assigned to every polling booth in naxal-affected areas on the day of polling. However, there are no particular inputs of threats from Naxal groups. Apart from ANF personnel, around 2,000-2,200 police personnel of all ranks will be deployed in the district, including KSRP personnel, Karnataka Industrial Security Force (KISF) personnel and a company from Kerala security forces, he informed.
Election Observer for Mangaluru sub-division P L Jyothindra said that several training programmes had been conducted for election observers and enumerators in view of gram panchayat polls.
Mr Ibrahim said that till date, a total of 19 instances of poll-code violations had come to the notice of the district administration, most of which concerned canvassing for votes in the name of political parties or leaders – Mangaluru taluk – 2, Bantwal taluk – 9, Belthangady taluk – 6, Puttur taluk – 1 and Sullia taluk – 2.
He said that a total of 84 symbols had been opted by the total number of candidates for the impending polls. The most sought-after symbol by ward-wise candidates is an auto-rickshaw (1045 candidates), he told mediapersons.
Holiday for schools on poll day
Padua High School, Mangaluru has been selected as the mustering, de-mustering and counting centre during the elections in Mangaluru taluk, Infant Jesus English Medium School, Modankapu in Bantwal taluk, SDM Pre-University College, Ujire in Belthangady taluk, Vivekananda English Medium High School, Thenkila Puttur in Puttur taluk and Nehru Memorial College, Sullia in Sullia taluk.
In view of the elections, Friday has been declared a holiday for government schools, Anganwadis, public sector banks and gram panchayats.
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