Enforcement activities stepped up in Odisha to ensure free & fair polls: DGP
Bhubaneswar: Odisha is going to General and Assembly elections in 4 phases starting from May 13. Election will be held in 21 Parliamentary Constituencies and 147 assembly Constituencies in last four phases.Odisha Police is fully geared up for a smooth, impartial, free & fair elections.In all, election will be held in 37,898 polling stations at 30,023 locations. There are 1023 polling stations in the Left Wing Extremist (LWE) area 11 naxal affected districts.Interstate Border Check Posts, Inter district border check posts have been in place. Nine Coordination meetings with neighbouring states have been held at DGP level.To ensure free & fair and inducement free poll, police has stepped up enforcement activities.Since January 1,2024, 33000 warrants have been executed/recalled/disposed off.A total of 39987 PRs under preventive sections of law have been submitted and 47289 persons have been bound down. Seven persons have been booked under NSA and illegal arms have been seized.A total of 112 cartridges, 113 bombs and 1530 explosives have been seized.
Three illegal arms manufacturing units have been busted.Besides, 4,50,000 litres of illegal liquor have been seized, 22000 cases registered and 3428 persons have been arrested.Moreover, 725 quintals of ganja and 4.5 Kg of brown sugar have been seized and 1048 persons arrested.Similarly, 5000 acres of Hemp cultivation have been destroyed, 3650 litres of Cough Syrup seized and 1048 persons arrested.An amount of Rs 4.1 crore cash has been seized. Nineteen election related cases including MCC violation are under investigation.For checking at interstate and interdistrict flow of illegal materials, contraband and unaccounted cash, 121 Inter-State BCPs and 280 Intra-State BCPs have been functioning. CCTV cameras have been placed in all Interstate BCPs.After declaration of MCC on 16/3/2024, 737- FSTs, 722-SSTs have been made functional round the clock.To address LWE problems, LWE polling stations have been identified.From 1.1.2024 , 4 Maoists cadre have been neutralized and 17 cadres have surrendered before police.Huge dumps and 6 Arms have been seized from Maoists.Police officers, Men, Home Guards and Gram Rakhis associated with election have been trained on election management and election related duty.
The training for police personnel have been monitored by the IG of Police, Training.In every district Social Media Monitoring Cell and at state level a Social Media Monitoring & Cyber Security Unit are functioning under the supervision of IG of Police CID-CB.So far 111 social media related complaints have been received and 350 contents have been taken down/removed. Five cases have been registered and one person has been arrested. A total of 643 social media handles are under surveillance.Communication shadow area have been audited and identified. Total 879 number of locations under mobile network shadow area have been addressed with alternate modes of communications like VHF/ Satellite Phones and runners with motorcycles.In 4th Phase- 4 PCs and 28 Acs in 9 districts of Ganjam, Berhampur, Gajapati, Kalahandi, Nuapada, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Rayagada and Kalahandi are going to poll.Number of Polling Stations is 7,298, number of locations is 6,282 and number of LWE affected is PSs- 537.Total Manpower utilized during election is 17000.In 4th phase, 6 LWE affected districts of Malkangiri, Koraput, Rayagada, Nabarangpur, Nuapada, Kalahandi are going to poll.Special Operational arrangements have been launched.A total of 539 Anti Naxalite Operations in these districts have been launched since 1.1.2024 and 138 Operational parties of CAPF and 37 units of SOG/DVF are in action.Chhattisgarh state is launching operations in 5 locations whereas Andhra Pradesh is launching 9 operations in the bordering areas.One Maoist Leader has been neutralized in Nabarangpur district.DGP Arun Sarangi informed that to monitor anti LWE initiative in the 4th phase, Additional DG of Police, Operation S.Deva Datta Singh is camping in LWE affected areas.
