Counting of votes commences tomorrow - 1.12 Lakhs police deployed for security/safety
Posted on: 22/May/2019 11:47:53 AM
With the counting of votes in the recently conducted parliamentary and some legislative assembly constituencies by-poll elections, the counting of votes is scheduled to start on Thursday, 23rd May. Around 1.12 Lakhs police personnel have been deployed for security and safety.
The elections for 38 parliamentary constituencies and by-polls for 18 Legislative Assembly constituencies were conducted in Tamil Nadu on 18th April. After the voting concluded, the EVMS from the polling booths were transported and kept safe in the respective 43 vote counting centres.
In a similar way, the EVMs for the 4 Legislative Assembly Constituencies Aravakkurichi, Thirupparankundram, Sulur, and Oddapidaram conducted on 19th May were also transported and kept safe in the above vote counting centres.
A 3-layered safety system is adopted for the safety of the EVMs. In the 1st layer, supplementary army personnel are deployed. In the 2nd layer, Tamil Nadu special Protection Police are deployed. In the 3rd layer, the local police personnel are employed for safety and security.
Thus, around 10000 personnel are being deployed for safety/security in the 43 vote counting centres throughout the state of Tamil Nadu.
On the vote counting day of 23rd May, this security will be beefed up further several times more, and additional police personnel are set to be deployed.
Surveillance monitoring cameras have been installed throughout all the vote counting centres. These monitoring cameras are installed and located right from the entrance of the vote counting centre to the tables near the EVMs where the counting is done. Each table is fitted with a camera.
The police department shared that each vote counting centre is fitted with 30 to 40 surveillance monitoring cameras. The monitoring system is designed in such a way that the control centre and the temporary police control centre can function jointly.
In order to ensure that no untoward incidents happen during the counting of votes, several precautionary measures have been taken by the police department.
It may be noted that especially, the office of the political parties are given security as also some prominent political leaders.
Further, it has been ordered to intensify the monitoring and patrolling operations to a severe extent. This has been especially beefed up at busy public centres such as bus stops/stations, railway stations, markets, religious worship places, etc.
High-level security arrangements have been made throughout the state. 1.12 police personnel are being deployed. These securirity arrangements are organised under the leadership of the Election Department DGP Asothosh Shukla.
Chennai Metro City
3 vote counting centres have been set up in Chennai Metro City. The votes from the North Chennai parliamentary elections will be counted at the Queen Mary’s College vote counting centre. The central Chennai votes will be counted in Nungambakkam Loyola College vote counting centre. The South Chennai votes will be counted in the Guindy Anna University vote counting centre.
The security level is to be beefed up multiple times on the day of the counting. On this day, around 15000 police personnel are to be deployed in Chennai Metro City. All the above security arrangements are organised under the leadership of Chennai Metro City Police Commissioner A. K. Viswanathan.
Meanwhile, a review meeting was conducted regarding the security measures to be provided on 23rd May under the leadership of the Chennai Police Commissioner A. K. Viswanathan on Tuesday (21st May). All the Additional Commissioners, Joint Commissioners, and other senior police personnel participated. Several crucial decisions were taken during this meeting regarding the various security arrangements.
