Troops move in thousands towards troubled Srinagar

Centre is deploying nearly 27,000 extra paramilitary troops for Monday's polls in "hyper-sensitive" Srinagar.

More than 1 lakh personnel of central paramilitary forces will be deployed in the 11 states going to polls on Monday in the third phase. In Srinagar alone, the CRPF would position nearly 27,000 men for election duty.

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Besides the central paramilitary forces, almost entire state police forces would be out to ensure peaceful polling.

CRPF will be the largest contributor among central forces, deploying nearly 71,700 personnel across 137 constituencies, official sources said in New Delhi on Saturday.

The biggest chunk, 27,700 personnel of CRPF deployment, will be made for Srinagar Lok Sabha seat in Jammu and Kashmir, where 2076 polling stations have been declared as "hyper-sensitive" and 1604 as "sensitive", they said.

CRPF, which has been declared as 'Nodal Agency' of central paramilitary forces for elections, will also deploy 136 companies in Assam, 77 companies in naxal-affected Andhra Pradesh, 46 in Bihar, 50 in Jharkhand, 64 in Manipur, 25 in Orissa, 37 in Uttar Pradesh and five in Karnataka.

BSF will deploy nearly 20,000 personnel, CISF 17,200, ITBP 1500, Railway Protection Force (RPF) 4500 and Special Services Bureau (SSB) and Punjab State Home Guards 2500 each.

In view of the level of violence witnessed in the first phase of polling on April 20, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar, security forces are making all out efforts to ensure trouble-free balloting on Monday when these states will again go to polls, the sources said.