Over 58,000 securitymen deployed for Phase I polls in K'taka

Bangalore, May 8 (UNI) In keeping with the unprecedented measures taken by the Election Commission to ensure fair and free elections to the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, police have made elaborate arrangements by deploying more than 58,000 security personnel for the Phase one polling slated for May 10.

Briefing newspersons on the arrangements, Director-General of Police R Sreekumar said the deployment included about 15,000 personnel from the para military forces, 25,000 policemen, 15,000 Homeguards and 3,000 Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP) personnel for elections to 89 constituencies in 11 districts of Karnataka.

Of the 18,562 polling stations, 6,252 have been classified as hyper sensitive and 3,500 as sensitive. Armed policemen would be posted in all the hyper sensitive and sensitive booths while Mobile squads would patrol every constituency to prevent any untoward incident, he said.

So far 329 cases against defacing of public place and 1,458 cases for violation of Provisions of the Karnataka Excise Act had been booked, he said adding that liquor worth Rs three crore was seized.

Over 14,200 persons identified as trouble makers were arrested and bonds undertaking good behavior obtained from them, he said and added that more than 1,000 criminal cases were booked under IPC, Karnataka Peoples' Act and Representation of Peoples' Act, besides 120 cases of inducement to voters registered and property worth Rs six crore seized.

As many as 39 people were injured in election-related incidents and property worth Rs 69 lakh damaged so far.

The state police has opened a website www.kspelections.com, to disseminate information related to action taken by police during elections and details about constituencies and candidates. People could also register their complaints through email and their names would be kept secret. Any information pertaining to malpractices could be intimated to district control rooms, he said.

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