'Police geared up to ensure free and fair polls in Telangana'

Additional Director General (ADG) of Telangana Police Jitender on Friday emphasised that the entire police force is fully geared up to ensure free and fair assembly elections in the state which is due on December 7.

Elaborating about preparations and arrangements done so far, Jitender told ANI, "We have completed vulnerability and criticality mapping of the poll booths and accordingly 'bandobast' plan has also been chalked out."

He further informed that 24 companies (paramilitary forces) of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) have already arrived in the state for maintaining law and order. "These forces are conducting regular flag march in different parts of the state and carrying out confidence-building exercises" especially in critical places which are infested with Naxals, he explained.

On security arrangements in Naxal hit districts, Jitender said that they have issued guidelines to the security personnel on how to retaliate the Naxals and what measures they must take while being posted in such difficult areas.

"We have over 32,500 polling booths across the state out of which 5000 have been identified as 'critical' which are hit by Naxals or are affected by other factors. There are high chances that Naxals will create a ruckus in the state during the election time as they have been dissipated from the past 10 years from the region. Places such as Asifabad district, some parts of Ramagundam, Bhadradri Kothagudem are some of the major areas which had been affected by Naxals in the past," he elucidated.

Giving out more details about the preparation undertaken in the state, the senior officer further said that the police have installed many check posts along the four bordering states (Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh) in order to keep an eye on the moving vehicles breaching the model code of conduct.

"Till today, the police accompanied by the Incom Tax department have seized 1 lakh litre of liquor and Rs 5 crore in cash from the vehicles. Total goods, cash and other material worth Rs 35 crore have been seized by us. We have also filed 9000 cases against the defaulters," Telangana ADG added.

In his concluding statement, he said that the forces are in direct contact with the Election Commission of India and also holds meeting with the commission on a regular basis.

The counting of votes will take place on December 11.The elections were originally scheduled to be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections in 2019, but K Chandrasekhara Rao-led cabinet decided to dissolve the assembly on September 6. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi, Congress, Telangana Jana Samithi and Telugu Desam Party are considered to be the main political contenders in the fray.