15k cops, 347 QRTs to join central force on poll watch duty today
Times of India | 1 June 2024
Kolkata: Fifteen thousand cops, 347 quick-response teams (QRTs) and 185 sector mobiles will join the 246 central forces, already deployed in the city, to ensure safety on streets and peaceful voting at 5,158 booths, located in 1,940 polling premises. Bengal Police also deployed 4,000 personnel, 1,000 of them women, as Kolkata goes to poll today.
Security measures were already being put in place by Friday afternoon, when nakas were set up to check vehicles. Kolkata Police’s emphasis is on ensuring security especially at places that have witnessed clashes in the run-up to the polls, such as Narkeldanga, Phoolbagan, Beliaghata, Panchasayar and Ganguly Bagan.
This will be apart from their special arrangements near 260-odd booths in Bhangar, which has been witnessing sporadic clashes. Extra deployment has been planned for Entally (572 booths) and Jadavpur, Patuli and Panchasayar will be under the Lalbazar scanner. Eight to 10 armed personnel will man each of the cop vehicles—240 RT mobiles and 80 HRFS—while 66 striking force and static surveillance teams will patrol streets. Police Sector Mobiles, along with Civil Sectors, will patrol fixed routes to cover poll premises.
A Lalbazar officer said QRTs would be deployed in those “trouble” localities to ensure voters’ safety to and from polling booths. “They will provide security beyond the polling booths, where central forces might not be able to penetrate,” said a senior officer. Police are under instructions from the EC to ensure no party person gets into any row and that no citizen, especially in clash-torn areas, be forced to vote for any particular party or person. Bengal Police has deployed 4000 personnel, 1,000 of them women, are being deployed for the first time to help Kolkata Police stop all forms of intimidation.
Cops said they were keeping special watch on hotels, community halls and clubs. If need be, some of these premises may be shut, said an officer. Slums in south and southeast Kolkata, especially in Panchasayar, East Jadavpur, Bhangar and pockets in Metiabruz, would be monitored closely, said sources.
All polling premises, with one or two booths, will have a half section of central force, the deployment strength being that of four personnel and one or two cops. There will be 499 single booths, 614 premises with two booths, 326 premises with three booths each in them, 282 premises with four booths and 106 with five. In each of these, 12 central force personnel will be deployed, along with four to five constables. The 59 premises with six booths each will be guarded by 16 central force personnel. There are two premises in the city that will have 15 booths each, to be manned by 32 central force personnel.
Four-hundred companies of central force will stay back in the city till June 6.