In a bid to ensure peaceful elections in the ten lok Sabha seats of Haryana on Thursday, police have nabbed 830 proclaimed offenders and seized unaccounted cash over Rs 1.28 crore.
As part of a special drive, unearthing of illegal arms was undertaken and movement of illicit liquor as well as narcotics substances were checked, Haryana DGP SN Vashisht said. He said 30 most wanted criminals and 938 anti-social elements had also been apprehended during the campaign until Tuesday. As many as 7,413 Non-Bailable Warrants had also been executed against various accused during the campaign.
Police seized 259 illegal arms, 85,138 bottles of liquor and also seized unaccounted cash amounting to Rs 1,28,75,520. Gold weighing 798.8 gms was also seized. 98,788 licensed weapons have been deposited in police stations, he added. He said that a special wireless communication grid has been created for the entire State to ensure seamless communication on polling day on Thursday.
Telephone lines in Police Control Rooms in all the districts have been increased to provide immediate access to police help, he said, adding police are committed for free, fair and peaceful conduct of the elections.
The DGP said around one lakh men in uniform would help prevent any untoward incident on the polling day. He said the State police have deputed 45,000 officers and personnel besides 20,000 Home Guard Volunteers and ex-servicemen, besides, 74 companies of Central Paramilitary Forces have been deployed, including force from CRPF, BSF, ITBP, RPF, CISF, Gujarat Armed Police, J&K Armed Police, Rajasthan Armed Constabulary and Mahila CRPF.
At least one personnel of the Haryana Police and one Home Guard Volunteer will be present at each and every booth. In addition, paramilitary forces have been stationed on all sensitive and hyper-sensitive booths. Patrolling parties and Sector Magistrates have also been pressed in service in large number to ensure peaceful polling and maintenance of law and order, he added
He added for security of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), seven companies of BSF have already been arranged at all Counting Centres where these EVMs will be kept after polling for safe custody.
Borders of the State have been completely sealed through more than 100 inter-State barriers, besides setting up over 350 nakas across the State, to curb any movement of arms, liquor or cash etc from outside Haryana, added Vashisht.
No liquor sale
Haryana’s Chief Electoral Officer Shrikant Walgad on Wednesday said that sale of liquor would be prohibited in all liquor outlets, restaurants, hotels, club and other registered place and no liquor would be allowed to be served till the conclusion of poll.
He said that legal action would be taken against those who would violate these orders. Police and Excise and Taxation Department have been asked for strict compliance of these orders, he added.
Helpline facilities
Walgad said that telephone-based, web-based and SMS based helpline facilities have been provided at headquarters as well as district level. Touch screen based helpline number service had also been made available in some districts in the state. He said that information concerning election like name in voter list, serial number, address of polling station could be obtained through these helpline numbers.
The helpline facility has been made available on telephone number 1950 and 1800-180-2047 in all districts. Voter could also get information about vote by sending voter card number through SMS on mobile number 9215156503. Apart from this, information about vote could also be obtained from website www.ceoharyana.nic.in.