Ninety-five per cent of the Mumbai Police has been deputed to election duty today. Cops will monitor hyper-sensitive booths with the help of drones for the first time
Police personnel deputed at Sion. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar
Ninety-five per cent of the Mumbai Police has been deputed to election duty today.
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"We cancelled the weekly offs of all policemen ahead of the election. All units of Mumbai Police, including the crime branch, will wok on ensuring that the election is peaceful," said Deputy Commissioner of Police and spokesperson of Mumbai Police Ashok Dudhe.
They will be accompanied by the Quick Response Team and State Reserve Police Force.
Polling station officials check their ward numbers at a meeting in Fort yesterday. Pic/Bipin Kokate
Police personnel will monitor 726 sensitive polling booths and 17 hyper-sensitive polling stations, and maintain video recordings of all proceedings at these venues.
Since the model code of conduct has been in place, the police have registered 17 offences like threatening and rioting, and 59 non-cognisable ones in Mumbai.
Eighteen illegal arms have been seized and 185 cases of illegal liquor sale have been reported in the city. "Barring a few instances, the election campaigns have been peaceful. We are confident that voting day will be peaceful as well," said Dudhe.
Preparations on at Gokhale College, Borivli. Pic/Nimesh Dave
Jump in sensitive booths
In the 2012 BMC election, 207 of 8,326 booths had been declared sensitive. Sources said owing to the split between the Shiv Sena and the BJP, and the Congress and the NCP since then, more polling stations have been designated as sensitive. Just three booths had been declared hyper-sensitive in 2012.
SoBo most hyper-sensitive
In 2012, Kurla and Chembur area were considered hyper-sensitive. The focus this time has shifted to south Mumbai, with Madanpura, Dongri, Nagpada, Bhendi Bazar, Nul Bazar and Bohri Mohalla being tagged hyper-sensitive.
The police will monitor proceedings at such booths through drones for the first time
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