Central paramilitary forces to man Madurai West bypoll

Madurai, June 25 (UNI) For the first time in Tamil Nadu, an election will be held with central paramilitary forces manning the polling centres and polling booths during the by-election to the Madurai West Assembly constituency tomorrow.

The State police have been directed to keep away from the polling stations and centres, city Commissioner of Police Sanjeev Kumar said today.

Talking to mediapersons here, he said the Election Commission had assigned the State police only to look after maintenance of law and order 100 m away from the polling booths. Even regulating the queue had been entrusted with the revenue and central paramilitary forces.

Unless requisitioned by the Returning Officer, the State police should not enter the polling booths or polling centres, he added.

The constituency had 216 polling booths and 58 polling centres, including 26 hyper-sensitive polling stations.

Mr Kumar said polling would be held in a peaceful manner and all security arrangements have been ensured for that. Besides the Central paramilitary forces, 1,474 personnel of the State police, including Tamil Nadu Special Police, have been deployed on election duty.

Twenty check posts and 28 pickets have been put up to screen and prevent the entry of outsiders into the constituency. The process of evicting outsiders commenced last evening itself. All the 124 lodging houses and marriage halls in the constituency have been checked thoroughly, he said.

As per the EC order, outsiders, unless with a valid reason, would not be permitted to stay inside the constituency. All registered arms have been surrendered to the police, he added.

The Commissioner said each of the seven police stations in the constituency would have an Assistant Commissioner supported by the striking force and 20 Inspectors. Their operations would be coordinated by a Deputy Commissioner.

UNI