Police department has launched several initiatives to prevent any untoward incident during the ensuing elections to the Lok Sabha and the Assembly constituencies. The Vellore district has two Parliamentary constituencies — Vellore and Arakkonam — and three Assembly constituencies — Ambur, Gudiyatham and Sholingur — going to polls on Thursday.
As part of the security measures, the police department has taken over the possession of 164 licensed weapons from private individuals.
Speaking to mediapersons, Vellore Range DIG V. Vanitha said that the department has executed 300 pending non-bailable warrants. Bind-over cases have been booked against rowdy and anti-social elements besides trouble mongers across the district. They were produced before the executive magistrates and released after collecting bonds for amounts determined by the magistrates. There will be an undertaking taken that they will not indulge in any criminal activities during the elections.
In order to facilitate sharing of information, meetings have been held with Tamil Nadu intelligence officials while check posts have been set up on the border near Chittoor to contain flow of cash and liquor. Among the 3,456 polling booths, 347 have been identified as sensitive and two as more vulnerable ones.
Pointing to the ongoing vehicular checks across the district, she said the exercise will be intensified during the next few days. As many as 13 check posts have been established along the district border to keep a tab on movement of cash and liquor with teams consisting of police, revenue and other department officials.
The Superintendent of Police (Vellore), K. Praveshkumar, said that additional special squads and flying squads, and surveillance teams were being formed for effective monitoring of illegal flow of cash through standard operating system.
Monitoring via App
Mr. Praveshkumar said ‘Poll Police App’ introduced by the students of VIT would be put to use by police officials at the field-level to monitor and communicate with each other.
He sought the cooperation of residents in maintaining law and order and said that any poll-related violations may be informed by calling 0416- 2258898, 93602 76882, or 94981 11101.