VELLORE: Ahead of the general elections to the Lok Sabha, the Police in Vellore district have begun preliminary measures for poll security to ensure smooth conduct of the exercise of electing the people's representatives.

Three Lok Sabha constituencies, Arakkonam, Arni and Vellore, share the Assembly segments in the district which has a total of 3,473 polling stations located in 1,656 locations. As many as 251 locations have been identified vulnerable while 2 locations critical so far. Further review of the ground realities would be made in due course.

“As many as 3473 polling stations spread across 1656 locations in Vellore district. So far, we have identified 2 locations critical and 251 vulnerable,” Superintendent of Police (SP) Pravesh Kumar told Express on Friday.

The scale of security to be deployed in the vulnerable and critical polling stations would be decided before the polling day, he added.

In order to ensure smooth and peaceful polling, the Police have been cracking down on history sheeters and rowdies. So far 183 persons were bound over through due legal procedures.

All those possessing licensed arms are directed to deposit them. As many as 300 weapons, against a total of 1160, have been surrendered so far, Pravesh Kumar said, adding special squads were constituted to serve pending warrants against offenders.

Monitoring on the inter-state borders sharing with Andhra Pradesh has been stepped up ahead of the elections.

According to the SP, “There are six permanent check posts and 7 temporary ones bordering Andhra Pradesh. Checking at these places have been intensified. The check posts are manned round-the-clock.”

A meeting with the SP of Chittoor district was held to discuss the sharing of information and cooperation in arresting offenders.