Andhra Pradesh: Police intensify cordon & search operations

Vijayawada: With just over a week left for the counting of votes for the state Assembly and Lok Sabha elections, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar reviewed the preparations for the counting of votes through video conferencing from Nirvachan Sadan in New Delhi and directed the officials to ensure that the process should be incident free.

This assumes importance in the wake of the post-poll violence that rocked parts of the state on May 13 to 15.

Following strict instructions from the ECI, the police department has intensified the cordon and search operations in the state and is taking measures to prevent any kind of violence. All important leaders of political parties in Palnadu have now moved over to Guntur and they have been told to stay put there till the counting is over. During the cordon and

search operations, the police are giving a stern warning to anti-social elements, rowdy sheeters, persons with past criminal record, history sheeters and suspects to stay away from violence and unlawful activities. Bind over cases have been filed against many not only in Palnadu but also in Tirupati and Anantapur districts which had witnessed incidents of violence like burning of vehicles, assaults, and stone pelting.

During the last three days, the police teams conducted searches at 502 places and seized 2,602 vehicles which have no documents. They seized one country-made gun and 307 litres of liquor in the Palnadu area.

The police had banned victory rallies and processions on the day of results. Interestingly, party activists in Visakhapatnam have found a novel way to bypass this order. Leaders and activists of all parties are planning to hold celebrations in hotels and resorts as the results are announced. The DGP has appointed 56 special officers to work especially on the violence-prone assembly segments and take extra care to check violence and untoward incidents till the end of counting. The ECI had also sent additional 20 companies of CRPF and had reshuffled the police officers following the May 13 violence.