A total of 10,829 police personnel will be deployed for election related work in Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupattur and Tiruvannamalai districts on Friday to ensure peaceful polling.
Election officials said that police in these districts have roped in personnel from all wings, including the Armed Reserve, the law and order and the traffic. Also, additional police personnel from neighbouring States like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, CRPF personnel, retired army staff and policemen will do election related duties in these districts.
“Persons with disabilities, senior citizens, pregnant women and feeding mothers need not wait in the queue to vote. They can go directly to the booths,” District Election Officer (Tiruvannamalai) D. Bhasakara Pandian said.
Lok Sabha constituencies in these districts are Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, Arakkonam and Arani.
Among these constituencies, Arakkonam has the highest number of 15,52,871 voters, followed by Tiruvannamalai (15,33,099 voters) and Vellore (15,21,116 voters). Women voters are slightly higher in all four constituencies. They will cast their votes in 5,189 polling booths. Of this, 696 polling booths have been classified as vulnerable. Around 28,000 election officials, who are mostly teachers and government staff, will be engaged in duty in polling booths.
Election officials said that on an average, each polling booth would have at least two police personnel including one armed CRPF staff. In vulnerable booths, the number of security personnel would be doubled. Web cameras and arrangements for live streaming of polling especially in vulnerable booths had also been made.
Strong rooms where EVMs would be kept before the counting scheduled for June 4 would be guarded by armed police personnel round the clock. As polling day has been declared holiday, Home Guards have been roped in to regulate traffic at key intersections in these districts as police in other wings will be busy in election work.
Amirthi Zoo in Vellore will remain closed on April 19 to encourage people to cast their votes. All TASMAC shops will also remain closed in these districts on Friday.
