Over 81,000 Personnel to oversee security arrangements in Punjab

CHANDIGARH: With the State of Punjab going for polls on Saturday for all 13 parliamentary constituencies in the 7th and final phase of the General Parliamentary Elections 2024, Punjab Police has made elaborate security arrangements to ensure smooth polling and huge participation of voters.

“All the necessary security arrangements have been made and a total of 81,079 Personnel including Central Armed Police Forces, Punjab Police and Home Guard Jawans from Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan have been deployed effectively in all the districts of Punjab to ensure free, fair and peaceful conduct of Lok Sabha Elections 2024,” said Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav here on Friday.

As per the information, as many as 24,451 polling stations have been established at 14,551 polling station locations across the state of which 5000 have been identified as Critical/Vulnerable Polling Stations. There are 328 candidates are in fray for 13 Parliamentary Constituencies in Punjab.

DGP Gaurav Yadav said that over 50 per cent of the total force i.e. 47,284 Personnel including CAPF/SAP have been deployed at 24,451 polling stations to ensure that electors would exercise their franchise in a smooth and hassle-free manner. All the candidates contesting for 13 Parliamentary constituencies in Punjab have been provided with adequate security as per the prescribed norms, he added.

The DGP said that as many as 351 Flying Squad Teams, 351 Static Surveillance Teams and 348 Quick Reaction Teams are also on their toes to respond to any report regarding cash/liquor/drugs or untoward incident in the state.

Special DGP Law and Order Arpit Shukla said that the Punjab Police has already laid 205 well-coordinated strong Inter-state Nakas across the state to check the movement of bootleggers, drug smugglers and anti-social elements. The adjoining states including Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, Haryana, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh will also be putting mirror Nakas on all the entry and exit points leading towards Punjab State, he added.

Sharing more details, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP)-cum-State Police Nodal Officer, Elections, Punjab MF Farooqui said that the Punjab Police has made unprecedented recoveries since the inception of Model Code of Conduct (MCC) on March 16, 2024 and has recovered/seized huge amount of unaccounted cash, licit/illicit liquor, drugs, precious metals, etc worth Rs 642.24 crores including Rs 13.14 crores cash.

He said that a total of 398350 licenced weapons have been deposited in the state, which is more than 95% of the total licensed weapons in the state.

He that they have received 405 complaints from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Punjab, which have been replied within the stipulated time and 32 cases related to electoral offences have been registered during the MCC. Besides this, all districts are being provided with 193 Reserves along with the DGP Punjab’s reserves for striking in case of any emergency, he added.

To ensure prompt response by the patrolling party in case of any incident, the ADGP said that the entire state has been divided into 2098 Route Zones or Sectors, which are duly covered by strong Police Patrolling parties and at least 11881 wireless sets have been provided to all the districts for better co-ordination, which also covers 102 shadow areas, identified in eight districts of the State of Punjab. These patrolling parties have been provided with internet-enabled tablets, which help authorities to identify the nearest patrolling party to any place of incident for the quickest response, he added.

Meanwhile, there are 117 storage/counting centres established in the state of Punjab and has been duly covered with three-tier security comprising CAPF, SAP and District Police respectively till the counting is over.

*BOX: PUNJAB POLICE’S RECOVERY SINCE MARCH 16, 2024*

Cash: Rs 13.14 crores

Licit Liquor: 82904 litres

Illicit Liquor: 26697 litres

Lahan: 25.08 lakh litres

Poppy Husk: 94 quintals

Opium: 185 Kg

Intoxicant Powder: 434 Kg

Heroin: 205 Kg

Charas: 32 Kg

Injection/Pills/Syrup: 2.62 lakhs