110 companies of CAPF to guard Gujarat local body polls

The State Election Commission (SEC) today announced that 110 companies of Central Armed Police Force(CAPF) have been called in for enhanced security during the upcoming local body polls in Gujarat.
Each of these companies usually comprise around 70 to 80 armed men. Out of the 110 companies, 50 companies of CAPF have already arrived in the state, while 20 others are on their way, a SEC release said.
Voting for the municipal corporations of Ahmedabad, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot, Jamnagar and Bhavnagar will be held on November 22, while polling for 31 district panchayats, 230 taluka panchayats and 56 municipalities is slated for November 29.

To review the law and order situation, State Election Commissioner Varesh Sinha today held a high level meeting with various top ranking police officials at Gandhinagar and expressed satisfaction about overall security set up for the polls, it said.
Out of all the buildings which will have polling booths in them across Gujarat, SEC have categorized 2,769 such buildings as "highly sensitive" while 5,271 are identified as "sensitive", it added.
To secure these locations, SEC will make use of 117 companies of State Reserve Police(SRP) along with the CAPF.

As a precautionary measure to hold free and fair polls, state police have conducted checking of more than 4 lakh vehicles, while more than 41,000 licensed arms of citizens have been seized till elections are over.

Meanwhile, Ahmedabad Joint Commissioner of Police (JCP), Special Branch, Vikas Sahay, today told reporters that over 9,000 policemen along with armed men of para-military forces will be on guard for the polls here on November 22.
This time, apart from the politically and communally sensitive booths, several booths have been declared as "highly sensitive" owing to the recent Patel quota agitation, Sahay added.