Over 11,000 polling stations "hypersensitive" in Karnataka

A total of 11,424 polling stations have been declared hypersensitive for the April 17 Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka, for which about 60,000 security personnel will be deployed.
"Total number of polling stations in the state is 54,264, of which the number of hypersensitive polling stations is 11,424, number of sensitive polling stations are 14,968, rest are all normal polling stations," Karnataka Chief Electoral Anil Kumar Jha told reporters here.
He said 2.95 lakh polling personnel would be deployed.
"Other than this, uniformed personnel for security purpose that we are going to deploy is about 60,000 that will include civil police, armed police, home guard and central paramilitary forces," he added.

He said 15,183 vehicles had been deployed to transport polling staff and about 5,000 vehicles for sector officials and other purposes including supervision. This does not include vehicles used by police personnel for security purposes.
Jha also pointed out that all types of surveys or opinion polls by the electronic media will be banned after 6 PM tomorrow, when the campaign ends.
Advising electronic media not to conduct panel discussions after 6 PM tomorrow, he said "there may be chances of violation of rules during panel discussions; there are chances that discussion may be interpreted by complainant and they may complain that it affects certain party or a candidate."

He also said "according to the provisions of Representation of Peoples Act paid holidays should be given by all public and private establishments to its workers on the polling day to facilitate voting. It is responsibility of all establishments and institutions.