Home Guards for elections

VADODARA, Aug 25: Notwithstanding the two companies of Madhya Pradesh police personnel promised to the Vadodara Rural constituency, the r...

VADODARA, Aug 25: Notwithstanding the two companies of Madhya Pradesh police personnel promised to the Vadodara Rural constituency, the rural police is planning to deploy Home Guards and Gram Rakshak Dals on security duty for the September 5 Lok Sabha polls.

8220;We have requested the State government and the Director-General of Police C P Singh for 550 more men. But even this number may not be sufficient8221;, said District Superintendent of Police Vivek Shrivastava. 8220;That8217;s why we8217;re thinking of using Home Guards and the Gram Rakshak Dals.8221;

The Vadodara district police will oversee polling in the rural parts of two Lok Sabha constituencies 8212; Vadodara and Chhotaudepur 8212; involving 1,600 polling booths in 1,250 buildings. Some 208 of these booths are sensitive8217;, up from 180 last year. Each of these require an extra constable.

To post one constable at every booth, the district police require at least 750 men in addition to its 850 personnel. Besides, 135 group mobiles need 600 or 700 more constables.

The manpower crunch is at least partly due to the fact that two neighbouring States are going to the polls simultaneously. So, though Madhya Pradesh can send 3,000 men for deployment all over Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan cannot, as they, too, have elections on September 5.

Moreover, against the five companies of paramilitary personnel sent to Vadodara Rural in the last Lok Sabha elections, only three companies are available this time because of the tensions on the Kutch border. Border Home Guards, who are usually deployed on election duties, too, are not being shifted this time.

8220;The entire police force cannot be put on election duty either8221;, pointed out Shrivastava. 8220;The minimum number of men have to man the police stations.8221;

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The Vadodara district police is also short of wireless sets. According to Srivastava, of the 270 sets available with the police, 180 were in use at police stations and only 90 were available for election duty. Since walkie-talkie sets cannot be hired from private agencies 8212; the police operate on a special frequency not accessible to ordinary walkie-talkie sets 8212; the district police may provide pagers to some of the mobile police parties.