Three-tier security arrangements are in place for polling booths located in areas close to Maoist-affected pockets bordering Chhattisgarh in Mulugu, Jayashankar Bhupalpally and Bhadradri Kothagudem districts to ensure incident-free elections on Thursday.
Drone-aided aerial surveillance has been intensified along the Pranahita river course in Vemanpally mandal of Mancherial district straddling the inter-state border with Maharashtra’s Maoist-hit Gadchiroli district as a safety precaution to pre-empt Maoist threats.
Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) forms the crux of the three-tier security layer around sensitive polling booths in Left-Wing Extremism (LWE) affected areas, sources said.
With the Maoist giving the election boycott call and putting up posters in some of the remote villages in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district, police have ramped up vigil in the border villages.
As many as 17 polling stations of the total 317 in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district have been classified as ‘sensitive’ due to their proximity to the Maoist-affected pockets along the inter-State borders with Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.
Around 19 companies of the CAPF and 650 district police personnel besides 650 Home Guards from Chhattisgarh have been deployed in Mulugu district.
The district police have intensified surveillance and security measures in Wazeedu, Venkatapuram and other border mandals following credible inputs that a six-metre action team of the Maoists forayed into Mulugu district from the Dandakaranya forest region in neighbouring Chhattisgarh to disrupt elections in Telangana.
Police have mounted extra vigil in Bhadrachalam Assembly constituency in the wake of the torching of a truck by suspected Maoists at Pusuguppa in Charla mandal of Bhadradri Kothagudem district on Tuesday evening.
Polling in Maoist-affected areas will end an hour early.
