Punjab: Over 44,000 cops to be deployed for zila parishad, panchayat samiti polls

Chandigarh, Dec 10 (PTI) More than 44,000 police personnel will be deployed across Punjab to ensure free, fair and peaceful zila parishad and panchayat samiti elections in the state, officials said on Wednesday.

The elections will take place on December 14 while the results will be declared on December 17.

Emphasising on the need to build a positive environment in the state, Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav directed police officers to strictly adhere to all aspects of the model code of conduct.

Special DGP (law and order) Arpit Shukla, who chaired virtual meeting with police commissioners, SSPs and DIGs, said that security has been beefed up across the state and field officers have been asked to muster at least 75 per cent police force from districts for deployment during the elections.

All the officers have already been asked to deploy strong inter-state and inter-district check points and carry out flag marches in their jurisdictions to build confidence among the general public, he said.

The DGPs of neighbouring states have already been requested to install 'nakas' on their side of the border with Punjab, he said.

Shukla said that as many as 18,718 polling booths have been set up at 13,395 polling stations, of which 860 are identified as hyper-sensitive and 3,405 as sensitive.

The special DGP said more than 44,000 police personnel will be deployed under the supervision of gazetted rank officers to ensure free, fair and peaceful elections in the state.

The officers have also been directed to ensure intensive patrolling across sensitive and vulnerable areas to pre-empt any untoward incident, he said. PTI CHS KVK KVK