Delhi Police and Central security agencies have woven a tight security blanket for maintaining law and order during polling day in the national Capital in the wake of possible spillover from Muzaffarnagar communal clashes.
A senior officer of Delhi Police said on Friday that Intelligence gathering has been intensified and also all the potential troublemongers have been accounted for. Preventive arrests will follow in case there was a need for the safe conduct of polls in the city.
According to statistics available with the Delhi Police, the East district has 65 sensitive booths and 17 hyper-sensitive booths, North-West has 54 sensitive and 14 hyper-sensitive, Central has 71 sensitive and 9 hyper-sensitive, West has 24 sensitive and 5 hyper-sensitive, North-East has 93 sensitive and 33 hyper-sensitive, South-West has 54 sensitive and 14 hyper-sensitive, North has 30 sensitive and 5 hyper-sensitive, New Delhi has 48 sensitive and 26 hyper-sensitive while South has 62 sensitive and 10 hyper-sensitive booths.
Delhi Police has put North East district under strict security watch as the maximum numbers of polling booths are in the North-East district. The very fact that out of 126 booths, 93 are sensitive and 33 are in the hyper sensitive category has made the cops to devise special security arrangements for this district. East district too has been bracketed in the sensitive district with 82 such polling booths. Surprisingly the West district which in 2008 had the maximum number of sensitive and hyper sensitive polling booths has only 29 such booths this year.
Deputy Commissioners of Police of the 11 police districts were asked to survey their respective districts and come out with a detailed action plan and the requirement of men and officers from Delhi Police and the Central Para-Military Forces (CPMFs). A district DCP said that the list of sensitive and hyper sensitive booths has been sent to the Election Commission of India.
Speaking to The Pioneer Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi Vijay Dev said that if any constituency has a history of riots and political conflict between any of the party members that specific constituency has been underlined as hyper-sensitive. There is a method in identifying polling booths said a Delhi Police officer. If the antecedents of a candidate are doubtful or he/she has a criminal background, the concerned constituency is put under sensitive category. Any previous history of resentment among groups (Gujjar and Jat, Yadav and Rajputs) is also taken into account. Another factor that decides is religious backgrounds and caste of parties to decide sensitive or hyper-sensitiveness of the polling booths.
Take the case of the Najafgarh constituency’s polling booths at Dichau Kalan village will fall under the category of hyper-sensitive as the candidate (sitting MlA Bharat Singh) has a previous history of criminal activities and criminal backgrounds.