BHUBANESWAR. Bhubaneswar: At least 415 companies of Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) and 288 contingents of Odisha Special Armed Police (SAP) have been deployed to maintain law and order during the counting of votes on Tuesday.
There are a total of 147 counting centres, one for assembly seats and 21 for parliamentary constituencies. All the counting centres are located in the premises of 70 EVM strong rooms under the jurisdiction of 34 police districts.
Ganjam district has a separate postal ballot counting centre, where a three-tier security arrangement has been made. One company of CAPF and three contingents of SAP have been deployed here to maintain law and order.
ADG (Law and Order) Sanjay Kumar said, “At least 17 companies of CAPF have been deployed at some sensitive places, including Bhubaneswar, to ensure that no untoward incident takes place after the election results are announced and victory processions are taken out.” Two-tier barricading has been put up around the counting centres in view of the pressure of large number of people coming and going. No unauthorised person will be allowed entry. The security forces deployed at the counting centres have been equipped with anti-riot equipment to deal with any situation. Kumar said a control room equipped with CCTV cameras has also been set up near each counting centre and a senior officer not below the rank of police inspector will be in-charge of it. Nine companies of SAP, which recently returned after completing election duty in other states, were deployed in sensitive districts of the state on Monday evening. As per the guidelines of the Election Commission of India (ECI), two-tier security has been put in place in each strong room. The first security layer or the inner ring is guarded by a platoon of CAPF. A total of 78 platoons of CAPF have been deployed in the inner ring of the EVM strong room. Similarly, a platoon of SAP has been deployed in the outer ring of each strong room. A total of 78 platoons of SAP have been deployed in the strong rooms across the state. The Odisha Police has also made adequate traffic arrangements to ensure smooth movement of private and public transport vehicles during the counting of votes and victory celebrations. The SP has been asked to fix specific routes for victory processions so that the general public does not face any inconvenience.
