158 polling booths Maoist-affected in Western Range

Out of the 4,604 polling booths in the Western Range (Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Uttara Kannada and Chikmagalur districts), 158 polling booths have been identified as Maoist-affected while 417 polling booths have been identified as hyper-sensitive and 1,279 booths as sensitive.

Addressing a press conference at Police Commissioner’s office on Tuesday, Police Commissioner and IGP (Western Range) in-charge R Hithendra said that the police have taken all steps to prevent any untoward incidents in all the polling booths, especially the Maoist-affected, hyper-sensitive and sensitive booths. 

There are 62 Maoist-affected polling booths in Dakshina Kannada, followed by 53 in Udupi and 43 in Chikmagalur, he informed and added that there is no Maoist-affected booth in Uttara Kannada district.

On the other hand, Uttara Kannada district has highest number of hyper-sensitive booths (182), followed by Chikmagalur (120), Dakshina Kannada (112) and Udupi (103).

Stating that a total of 4,053 security personnel have been deployed to monitor the poll process in the four districts, he said out of the 4,053 personnel, 481 are officials that include 4 SPs, 4 Additional SPs, 20 DySPs, 63 police inspectors and 390 police sub inspectors / assistant sub inspectors.

In addition, 592 personnel will be part of mobile squads that include 95 personnel for flying squads while a total of 1,400 personnel from the para military and Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP) will be deployed as a part of the security, he said.

Meanwhile, Dakshina Kannada Superintendent of Police S D Sharanappa said that cases have been booked against 410 persons under CrPC (threat to security) while 335 persons have been arrested under non-bailable warrant (NBW) and produced before the court.

Out of the 9,970 persons who have the license to use weapons, 9910 persons have deposited the weapons.

Similarly, a total of Rs 6,00,200 has been seized besides three cars.DCPs K V Jagadish and Vishnuvardhan were present at the press conference.