BHUBANESWAR: Odisha DGP in-charge BK Sharma on Friday asked senior police officers to make adequate arrangements to ensure incident-free elections in the second phase, scheduled on April 18.
In the second phase, people will exercise their franchise in five Parliamentary and 35 Assembly segments. The five Lok Sabha constituencies are Bargarh, Balangir, Sundargarh, Kandhamal and Aska.
With some of these areas affected by Left Wing Extremism (LWE), the DGP asked the SPs of Nayagarh, Rourkela, Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Balangir, Bargarh, Sonepur, Berhampur, Boudh, Ganjam and Kandhamal to make foolproof security arrangements to ensure fearless and fair elections. The SPs have also been asked to direct Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) to conduct area domination, mobile patrolling and deploy their personnel at sensitive booths.
Reviewing the security arrangements via video-conferencing from Odisha Police headquarters in Cuttack, Sharma instructed the SPs of 11 districts to submit their requirement of additional manpower before ADG (Law and Order) and ADG (Operations) to conduct anti-Maoist operations.The SPs were also directed to operate integrated control rooms in their respective district headquarters involving officers of State Police, CAPF, revenue administration and others. They were also asked to remain present in the control rooms during polling.
Moreover, with top leaders expected to arrive in the State for campaigns, public meetings and rallies, security arrangements of the VVIPs and VIPs was discussed.Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address public meetings in Bhubaneswar and Sambalpur on April 16, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is likely to visit Balangir a day before. Apart from this, security arrangements for Ram Navami festival were also discussed.