Police geared up for peaceful conduct of first phase of gram panchayat elections

Around 782 police personnel have been deployed to ensure peaceful conduct of the first phase of gram panchayat elections to be held in five mandals of Karimnagar district on Thursday.

Tight security arrangements have been made at 858 polling stations spanning 91 gram panchayats in Choppadandi, Gangadhara, Ramadugu, Kothapalli and Karimnagar rural mandals where the gram panchayat elections will be held from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursday. This will be followed by vote counting scheduled to begin at 2 p.m.

Striking force teams and mobile parties will also be deployed during the elections to prevent untoward incidents and ensure smooth conduct of the polls with a focus on sensitive polling booths, police said.

Arrangements are in place for constant monitoring of the polling process by micro-observers and webcasting of the voting process in the sensitive polling booths wherever necessary, sources added.

In Khammam district, a strong posse of 2,000 police personnel deployed for the first phase of gram panchayat elections bandobust. Prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) have been imposed at the polling stations in the poll-bound mandals across the former composite Khammam district.

Police have deployed around 936 police personnel for the first phase of the gram panchayat polls to be held in 166 villages spanning six mandals in Adilabad district.

Additional police forces will be deployed in critical and sensitive polling stations as part of the elaborate bandobust plan, police said.