250 more paramilitary companies to arrive in state

Amritsar, May 15

Special DGP (Law and Order) Arpit Shukla today held a meeting with senior police officials of the border range to review security arrangements for the upcoming 18th Lok Sabha elections.

Later speaking to the media, Shukla said at least 225 more companies of paramilitary forces would be arriving in Punjab. He said 80 per cent of the police force was being mobilised to ensure free, fair and peaceful elections in the border state. He said already 25 companies of the Central forces had been deployed in the state.

Rakesh Kumar Kaushal, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Border range, and Gurpreet Singh Bhullar, Commissioner of Police (CP), Amritsar, were among those present at the meeting.

Shukla said there were 14,547 polling locations in the state out of which 3,103 were declared sensitive. He said the police had set up 220 special check points in 10 districts bordering neighbouring states, including Jammu and Kashmir, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan, to check influx of narcotics, illicit liquor, cash and weapons.

He directed all police officials not to let anyone disturb the hard-earned peace in the state. He asked police officials to intensify checking of vehicles, especially commercial, entering and exiting the state to check the influx of narcotics and illicit liquor.

Notably, the Punjab Police have recovered Rs 5.45 crores of unaccounted cash, 11.49 lakh litres of liquor and 99.62 kg of drugs since the imposition of the Model Code of Conduct.

Shukla said the Punjab Police was committed to provide level playing fields for all candidates contesting the Lok Sabha polls.

Meanwhile, the Special DGP apprised officials about norms for the deployment of forces at normal polling stations, and critical and vulnerable polling locations, where the CAPF forces in addition to the Punjab Police would be deployed. He also apprised officials about the norms regarding providing security to candidates.