City Police Commissioner Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal on Monday said strongrooms storing electronic voting machines were under the surveillance of closed circuit television cameras and armed police personnel till the time of counting.
“There will be continuous surveillance at strongrooms with the deployment of police guards and monitoring through CCTV cameras. Officers will be deployed for round-the-clock monitoring. Any authorised entry into the strongrooms will be permitted only after a register entry,” Mr. Aggarwal said.
Mr. Aggarwal, accompanied by Additional Commissioner, North, T. Senthilkumar and other officers, visited the places where polling booths will be set up and inspected the bandobust arrangements in the city.
Later talking to the press, Mr. Aggarwal said Chennai, Thiruvallur, Kancheepuram and Chengalpattu revenue districts fell fully or partially under the jurisdiction of the Greater Chennai City Police. As many as 24 Assembly constituencies would be covered by the city police.
“In our area, 2,078 polling stations are located and 11,852 polling booths are being set up. Compared to previous elections, we have set up 4,000 additional booths. After analysing circumstances and law and order problems in previous elections, we have identified 307 vulnerable locations that comprise 1,216 booths. We are going to provide extra security to them. Central Paramilitary forces and personnel of the Tamil Nadu Special Police will be deployed. We have identified 10 critical locations, where 30 booths are located,” he said.
He also said that as per the orders of the Election Commission, 1,792 licensees had handed over their licensed weapons so far and only 18 weapons were yet to be deposited.
1,300 warrants issued
The Commissioner said after the model code of conduct kicked in on February 26, around 1,300 non-bailable warrants (NBWs) were executed and special teams had been constituted to execute 645 NBWs, which were pending.
Mr. Aggarwal said, “We have taken action against anti-social elements under preventive sections and so far, 1,916 cases have been booked. As many as 1,600 history-sheeters have been detained.”
He said 77 cases had been booked for poll code violations and another 398 cases were booked for offences under the Tamil Nadu Open Places (Prevention of Disfigurement) Act .
In the city limits , 77 flying squads and 77 static surveillance teams were on round-the-clock duty. In addition, 150 flying squads and 150 static surveillance teams would be deployed soon, Mr. Aggarwal said.
