HYDERABAD: Believe it or not, but nearly 40 per cent of the polling stations, 3,272 out of 7,500, in Greater Hyderabad have been identified as sensitive, hyper-sensitive, critical or vulnerable!
GHMC officials told Express that 1,987 polling stations were marked as sensitive, 867 as hyper-sensitive, 382 as critical and 36 as vulnerable. A majority of them fall in the old city of Hyderabad.
Mailardevpally ward tops the list with 71, followed by Ramnagar (67), Amberpet (67), Golnaka (62), Uppuguda (56), Bholakpur (52), Gandhinagar (52), Yousufguda (51), Dabeerpura (48), Golconda (48), Karwan (45), Gowlipura (45) and Riyasathnagar (45).
Jubilee Hills, Ameerpet, KPHB Colony, Malkajgiri, Uppal, Old Malakpet, Doodhbowli and some others have been identified as peaceful and do not have any sensitive, hyper sensitive, critical or vulnerable polling booths.
Polling stations having a record of large-scale violence during electioneering and which recorded a high voting percentage of more than 75 per cent are classified as critical.
Polling booths the areas around which have a population of different communities and where supporters of different political leaders are found to be very aggressive in nature are classified as hyper-sensitive.
Places where it is presumed that prompt police action can be initiated without much difficulty and any untoward situation can be brought under control with use of force are termed sensitive and normal. And the number of sensitive polling stations may go up depending on the final list of contestants.
If the candidates’ record is found to be controversial and bad in nature with criminal background, the number of sensitive stations will naturally go up.
With multi-cornered contests looking a certainty in all the 150 wards, a tense-like situation will prevail during electioneering by various political parties. The Telangana State Election Commission (TSEC) has directed the police to ensure adequate security at each and every polling station.
Once the final list of candidates is published, the GHMC, in coordination with police, will begin the process of identifying additional sensitive, hyper-sensitive and critical polling stations. Those listed as critical stations will be under the monitoring of micro-observers comprising officials drawn from central government and public sector undertakings.
Already, TSEC has directed the election machinery to do mapping of areas that are vulnerable to threat and intimidation. Polling stations, identified as having vulnerable pockets, will be listed. GHMC officials said that apart from the polling booths that would have police deployment, additional police personnel would be deployed at sensitive, vulnerable and critical booths. Further, video cameras will be installed in all the booths and there will be live webcasting of critical booths. Web cameras will be installed at critical polling stations and the feed will be directly linked to the TSEC.
Additional bandobust for sensitive, critical and vulnerable polling stations will be made while the State Reserve Police will be deployed at sensitive and hyper-sensitive booths.