10,000 personnel on guard for polling in Gautam Budh Nagar

At 5am on Thursday, amid heavy security, polling parties will leave from Phase-2 flower market where EVMs are stored, to go to their respective polling stations

Gautam Budh Nagar has deployed more than 10,000 police personnel and paramilitary forces in various parts of the district to ensure safe and fair polling, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

A closed liquor shop in Sector 27, Noida on Wednesday. The Gautam Budh Nagar administration has completely banned sale of liquor in the district for 48 hours ahead of election day on April 26. (Sunil Ghosh/HT Photo)

On Thursday morning, amid heavy force deployment, polling parties will leave from Phase-2’s flower market, where all electronic voting machines (EVM) are stored in the strong room, to go to their respective polling stations.

“All the polling personnel will reach the flower market in Phase-2, Noida at 5 am on Thursday, and the strong rooms of legislative assemblies in Noida, Dadri and Jewar will be opened at 6 am. Three platoons of the PAC (provincial armed constabulary) will guard the polling parties as they transit from the flower market to their respective polling booths,” said Babloo Kumar, joint commissioner of police (headquarters), Noida.

Gautam Budh Nagar goes to polls on April 26 in Phase 2 of the Lok Sabha elections.

Police said that the district will become a fortress from Thursday evening as border checking will be intensified. “Interstate and inter-district borders will have barricades from Thursday evening onwards to ensure checking of any suspicious people entering the district. The public will not be inconvenienced during this time, and the police’s focus will only be to ensure there are no outside elements that enter the district to disrupt a free and fair election,” added Kumar.

The Noida Police Commissioner on Wednesday held a briefing with all police officers to give instructions regarding the security arrangement for the elections.

“Following the briefing, a drill was held on Wednesday evening to check movement of mobile teams of police that will be dispatched to polling booths in case a complaint is received. The mobile teams of police personnel will be deployed near the polling booths and will reach the concerned polling booth within three minutes of receiving a complaint,” said Laxmi Singh, commissioner of police, Noida.

Police have established two control rooms — one in Sector 142, Noida, and the other at the Surajpur collectorate office in Greater Noia.

“The police’s wireless system and Dial112 helplines have been directly connected to this control room. An ACP level officer has been made in charge of both the control rooms,” added Singh.

Police will also use CCTV cameras linked to the Integrated Traffic Management System (ITMS) office in Sector 94, Noida. “We will remotely monitor the district using 1,300 CCTV cameras in Noida and 700 cameras in Greater Noida,” said the officer.

She added that special monitoring will be done at sensitive polling stations. “A total of 51 polling stations have been identified as critical, of which 50 have vulnerable and sensitive population and one has less than 10% voting statistics,” said Singh.

The three assembly constituencies of Dadri, Noida and Jewar have been divided into 26 zones and 120 sectors for ease of policing. Noida has 10 zones and 36 sectors, Dadri has 10 zones and 42 sectors and Jewar has six zones and 42 sectors. In terms of policing at borders, 24 interstate barriers, 26 interdistrict barriers and 26 pickets have been made for intensified checking.

“As many as 10,800 police personnel have been deployed in the district, including 22 Central Para Military Force (CPMF) companies, six Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC), 800 inspector-rank officers, 4,000 constable and head constables, 3,000 homeguards. Aside from that, we have 140 Police Response Vehicles with manpower of 800 police personnel and 400 traffic police personnel, which are also pressed into service to ensure safety and security of the district during the polls,” said Kumar.

To ensure smooth monitoring and security deployment, the Noida Police launched a mobile application on Wednesday called “e-Sampark Noida Police App” to be used by police officers and personnel. “The app will be helpful in booth-wise contacts for police. It will also allow police personnel to get the Google Maps location of polling booths directly,” said the joint commissioner.