Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the police have begun identifying critical and sensitive booths in north Kerala.
Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasaragod districts have reportedly the most vulnerable booths in the State. “Each district has it own peculiarity in dealing with law and order issues,” Balram Kumar Upadhyay, Inspector General of Police, Kannur Range, told The Hindu on Tuesday.
The police districts of Kasaragod, Kannur, Kozhikode Rural, Kozhikode City, and Wayanad come under the jurisdiction of the Kannur range. There are five Lok Sabha constituencies - Kasaragod, Kannur, Vadakara, Kozhikode and Wayanad - in the range. Each constituency has over 1,000 booths as some of the constituencies are spread in other districts as well.
Mr. Upadhyay said that the booths were identified based on the guidelines of the Election Commission. Already, the district administration, in association with the State police headquarters, was compiling the data. “We are in the final stages of locating and identifying the sensitive and critical booths,” he said.
Usually, the booths are set up in buildings, especially educational institutions under the respective police station. The history of the booths and the vulnerability of the location are considered for categorising the booths.
Police sources said that except for a few areas in Kozhikode city, most of the booths were considered to be normal. The areas in Kozhikode rural were either politically or communally sensitive. Most parts of Kannur were either politically sensitive or had critical booths. Kasaragod had booths that were politically and communally sensitive. Wayanad had pockets with the suspected presence of Left wing extremists.
The Election Commission would deploy police personnel including battalions attached to the armed reserve police in Kerala and Karnataka to ensure free and fair election. At some places, platoons of the Thunderbolt Commandos would also be engaged, the sources said.