Punjab, Chandigarh all set for smooth, safe polls: police

Chandigarh, May 12 (IANS) The Punjab Police Tuesday said that all measures were in place to ensure safe and peaceful voting in nine constituencies that go to polls Wednesday.

Over 205 checkposts have been set up at various places across the state to keep a tab on the entry of anti-social elements and the bridges of Satluj and Beas rivers here have also been sealed to avoid any untoward incident, Punjab Director General of Police K.K. Attri told reporters here.

'Besides 165 companies of paramilitary forces and state armed police, over 53,000 state police personnel have been pressed into action to provide foolproof security during the elections,' he said.

Attri added that during the final phase of elections in the state, the constituencies of Amritsar, Gurdaspur and Khadoor Sahib have been declared hypersensitive while Faridkot and Ludhiana have been declared sensitive.

In the last phase, out of 13,152 polling stations here, 1,099 stations have been declared hyper-sensitive, while 2,548 have been declared sensitive.

'Effective communication system has been established between police officials and patrolling parties to ensure a quick response in case of any emergency. Three companies have been kept reserved and ready in case of any emergency,' said Attri.

There are over 11.6 million eligible to vote and 139 candidates are in the poll fray in these nine constituencies of Punjab.

Among the nine seats that go to polls Wednesday, the high-profile election is for the Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Ludhiana and Jalandhar seats.

Security measures are also in place in the union territory of Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, which will also go to the polls for its lone parliamentary seat Wednesday.

'We have been allotted two companies of paramilitary forces from the central government. Apart from this, we have also deployed 2,600 police personnel across the city. Our special focus is on the border areas,' Chandigarh Senior Superintendent of Police S.S. Srivastava told IANS.

'We have also made a list of 20 habitual offenders and have taken preventive measures in advance. Our senior officials would be deployed at various sensitive locations of the city,' he said.

There are 52,2650 eligible voters in Chandigarh and out of 422 polling booths, 84 have been declared sensitive.