Special emphasis will be placed on peaceful, free & fair electoral process: Odisha DGP
Bhubaneswar: (Abhishek Mohanty)Special emphasis will be placed on peaceful, successful, free & fair electoral process in Odisha, said DGP Arun Sarangi on Friday.Tomorrow marks the third phase of General Election2024 in 12 districts encompassing 6 Lok Sabha & 42 Assembly Constituencies in Odisha.In a press briefing ahead of the third phase election to be held in the state on May 25, the DGP said, “The 4th and 5th Phase of poll in 9 parliamentary constituencies and 63 assembly constituencies were completed on 13.05.2024 and 20.05.2024 respectively in a peaceful manner without any serious or alarming incident. There was massive voter turnout also. There was re-poll in two booths under Kantamala assembly constituency of Boudh districts. The re-polling in two booths also held peacefully on yesterday (23.05.2024). All 11 Naxal affected districts went to poll in the 4th & 5th Phases. There was no Naxal related violence during the pre-poll, poll day and post-poll period due to intense anti-Maoist operations and real time intelligence collection. The most significant achievement of this election is peaceful, free and fair conduct of poll in naxal affected areas. The poll boycott call of the Maoist had no effect at all. In the Lok Sabha Election, 1998, the first incident of naxal violence was reported when a mobile party was attacked, and one Havildar expired. Since then in all subsequent elections, there has been serious Maoist violence including attack on poll parties, police forces, destruction of EVMs, bomb blast on the road and non-participation of villagers in voting in naxal areas. We thank the District SsP and the operational forces and CAPF in ensuring incident free poll.”The 6th Phase (3rd Phase for Odisha) 6 PCs and 42 ACs in 12 police districts of Sambalpur, Deogarh, Angul, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Dhenkanal, Cuttack, Cuttack UPD, Nayagada, Puri, Khordha and Bhubaneswar UPD are going to Poll. None of the above district is naxal affected.Number of Polling Stations is 10551Number of Locations is 7646.There are around 20% sensitive booths. Total Manpower to be utilized during election is 35000 which includes 121 Coys of CAPF, 106 platoons of Odisha Armed Police and 19865 civil police personnel.Election Related Deployment- 43 Additional SPs, 95 DSPs, 238 Inspectors, 2160 SI/ASI, 10212 Havildar & Constables and 7117 Home Guards & GRs will be deployed.Additional 20 company of CAPF have been sent to the state.Odisha had sent 1200 HG to Chhatisgarh. They have given 300 Constables and 700 HGs.5 young IPS Officers of ASP rank mobilized for Sambalpur, Khordha, Keonjhar and Cuttack.Total 42 Assembly Supervising Officers in the rank of Additional SP with striking force will be deployed and 84 DSP will supervise the law and order (2 for each assembly segment) with striking force.A total of 78 election related cases have been registered out of which 17 cases are for Model Code of Conduct violations. Action have been taken on 89 accused persons involved in these cases.A total of 16 election related cases have been registered in the districts going to poll on 25.05.2024. In all cases, accused persons have been arrested.
