Chief secretary SK Joshi seeks additional forces for Lok Sabha polls in Telangana

Hyderabad: Telangana state chief secretary S.K. Joshi has requested the Election Commission of India to sanction 19,000 police personnel from the neighbouring states and 276 companies of Central forces for the smooth conduct of the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections in the state. 

Mr Joshi informed the ECI that he was planning hold a meeting with the officials from the neighbouring states on February 5. He said this when chief election commissioner Sunil Arora on Monday held a video conference with chief Secretaries, DGPs, CEOs and other officials to review the states’ preparedness for the Lok Sabha elections.  

Mr Joshi told the ECI that Telangana Assembly elections were conducted in December last year peacefully after the state was sanctioned 19,000 police personnel from neighbouring states, in addition to 276 companies of Central forces. He said the same amount of forces would be required for the forth coming Lok Sabha elections too. 

The chief secretary said the state administration was taking every step to conduct Lok Sabha elections peacefully. Central election commission officials will tour all the states to review the steps taken by state governments to conduct Lok Sabha elections. 

Mr Joshi said the state electoral rolls would be published on February 22. He said the state government would allocate the budget required to conduct the elections. 

DGP Mahendar Reddy informed the election commission that the police force was ready to conduct the Lok Sabha elections without any incidents like it did in the recent Assembly and ongoing panchayat elections. He said the force would implement a action plan for Maoists-affected areas along with the forces in Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. He also spoke about setting up interstate checkposts and steps taken to resolve election-related cases and exchange of information with other states. He said the police had identified sensitive polling stations.