Delhi assembly elections: Security upped, sensitive zones marked

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police will deploy additional forces across the city to prevent sporadic protests at sensitive areas during the polling on Saturday. A special flying squad will also be there in each district to monitor gatherings in the areas near the polling stations.
Delhi Police on Friday held a meeting with the candidates and the election managers of all parties, urging them to ensure violence-free polling.Police have also alerted the Special Cell and the Crime Branch to keep a watch on suspicious movements of small groups.
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An officer said sensitive and hyper-sensitive zones had been demarcated using previous records of violence and after consultations with the Election Commission. Some of these booths have been identified in Seemapuri in northeast Delhi’s Seelampur; Adarsh Nagar and Bharat Nagar in northwest Delhi; Karol Bagh, Patel Nagar and Chandni Mahal in central Delhi; and Najafgarh, Mundka, Sultanpuri and Nangloi in outer Delhi, he added.
Apart from 40,000 Delhi Police personnel, 180 companies of paramilitary and 13,000 cops from Punjab, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh will be deployed. Senior police officers will monitor all areas from the control room at the police headquarters and conduct on-the-ground checks of arrangements.
Apart from the cops on poll duty, Delhi Police will deploy all its personnel from the control room and communication units on the roads. Additional 20,000 personnel from the reserve battalions will be deployed for law and order duties.
The cops have begun special patrolling crowded markets like Chandni Chowk and Paharganj. The eyes-and-ears scheme, involving locals in policing, has also been activated, they said.
From Friday night, the police activity will include Excise Act crackdown and the action against defacement around the booths post-5pm. The officer said once the poll duties were over, another set of personnel from Delhi Police and paramilitary units would be deployed around seven counting centres where electronic voting machines would be kept till the counting day.