Haryana chief electoral officer (CEO) Pankaj Agarwal has said that 155 companies of the central armed police forces will arrive by September 24 ahead of October 5 assembly elections in the state and after the first and second phase of elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
The CEO said that 25 companies of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), 15 of Border Security Force (BSF), 30 of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), 25 of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), 35 of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), and 25 companies of Railway Protection Force (RPF) will be deployed September 24 onwards.
He said that the state had sought 225 companies of which 70 companies had arrived in the state in the last week of August.
Initially, 15 companies each of the CRPF and CISF, and 10 each of the BSF, ITBP, SSB, and RPF were directly sent to Haryana by the Union ministry of home affairs.
The CEO said that 30 companies will remain in the state for the security of EVMs, strongrooms, and counting centres until the vote counting is completed, while the remaining 195 companies will return.
“Conducting elections in a free and transparent manner is the primary goal of the Election Commission. In this regard, along with state police, companies of the Central Armed Police Forces, including BSF, CRPF, CISF, ITBP and RPF, will be deployed to ensure that people can exercise their voting rights fearlessly and without any pressure,” the CEO said, adding that the main purpose of deploying central armed police forces is to instill confidence in voters through flag marches and area domination during the election process.
{{/usCountry}}“Conducting elections in a free and transparent manner is the primary goal of the Election Commission. In this regard, along with state police, companies of the Central Armed Police Forces, including BSF, CRPF, CISF, ITBP and RPF, will be deployed to ensure that people can exercise their voting rights fearlessly and without any pressure,” the CEO said, adding that the main purpose of deploying central armed police forces is to instill confidence in voters through flag marches and area domination during the election process.
{{/usCountry}}He said that to maintain internal security around polling booths, personnel from Haryana Police, IRB, and Home Guard will be deployed.
He said deployment of central paramilitary forces will be made at critical polling stations for monitoring. Webcasting will also be used to keep surveillance at polling stations, while NCC/NSS and Red Cross volunteers will assist elderly and differently abled voters in the voting process.
Meanwhile, following the scrutiny of nomination papers of all 90 assembly constituencies that was completed on September 13, the papers of 1,221 candidates were found valid.
The nomination papers of 338 candidates were rejected, the CEO said.