Punjab Police to deploy over 44,000 personnel for grassroots polls

Chandigarh, Dec 10 In the wake of the forthcoming zila parishad and panchayat samiti elections, Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav on Wednesday said that the police is fully geared up to ensure free, fair and peaceful elections in the state with the deployment of over 44,000 personnel.

Notably, the zila parishad and panchayat samiti elections in Punjab will be held on December 14, and the results will be declared after the counting of votes on December 17.

Emphasising the need to build a positive environment in the state, DGP Yadav directed all the police officers to do professional policing and strictly adhere to all aspects of the Model Code of Conduct.

Divulging details, Special DGP (Law and Order) Arpit Shukla, who had chaired a virtual meeting with CPs and SSPs and Range DIGs of the state, said that security has been beefed up across the state and field officers have been asked to muster at least 75 per cent police force from districts for deployment during elections.

All the CPs and the SSPs have already been asked to deploy strong inter-state and inter-district checkpoints to keep vigil around the anti-social elements and carry out flag marches in their jurisdictions to build confidence among the general public, he said, while adding that DGPs of neighbouring states have already been requested to install checking points on their side of the border with Punjab.

He informed that as many as 18,718 polling booths have been set up at 13,395 polling stations, of which 860 are identified as hyper-sensitive and 3,405 as sensitive polling stations.

The Special DGP said that over 44,000 police personnel have been deployed under the supervision of gazetted rank officers to ensure free, fair and peaceful elections in the state.

All CPs and SSPs have also been directed to ensure sustained and intensive patrolling across sensitive and vulnerable areas to pre-empt any untoward incident, he added.

--IANS

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