LS polls: 62 companies of central armed forces to arrive in Kerala

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: 62 companies of central armed forces will come to Kerala to provide security for the elections. Kerala had earlier asked for 131 companies of the central armed forces. The soldiers of CRPF, CISF, ITBP, Sashastra Seema Bal and Rapid Action Force will arrive in the state.

The central forces are armed with 9 mm pistols, INSAS rifles, INSAS light machine guns, automatic grenade launchers, AK 47, AKM rifles and Tavor rifles.

A company may have 70-100 members. There are 15 companies of CRPF in the state. After the polls in Tamil Nadu on April 19, more forces will arrive. 20 companies of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka police forces will also arrive in Kerala. Central forces will be deployed in problem-affected booths and Maoist-threatened areas. Thunderbolt and Rapid Action Forces will be in northern districts. There are more than 3000 problematic booths.

The central forces will act as per the orders of the SP or the subdivisional officers. A-category booths, which are highly problematic, will have four central army personnel each and B-category booths below that will have two personnel each. There will be more police here. Group patrols, police pickets and surveillance system will be provided. Central forces will also be deployed for law and order, crowd control and voter assistance.

All accommodation, food, travel and return travel expenses of the central forces are borne by the police, which will be reimbsursed by the Centre.

50,000 personnel including police, excise, forest, motor vehicle officers and home guard will be deployed for security. There will be 10000 special police officers including ex-servicemen and retired.

• Booths are divided into hypersensitive and sensitive on the basis of severity.
• Central forces will be deployed on the polling day in the booths found to be problem-affected.
• Central forces will conduct route moorch in problem affected areas and where there is law and order problem.