651 Maoist-Sensitive Polling Stations in Agency 2 Choppers To Fly Poll Officials
Visakhapatnam: The police in Alluri Sitarama Raju and Parvathipuram districts are focusing on Maoist-influenced polling stations for conducting the elections in a smooth manner on May 13. Cops in the two districts have identified 651 LWE sensitive and 238 law and order problem polling stations.
A police official in ASR district said that they have identified 610 Left Wing Extremist sensitive and 85 law and order sensitive stations out of the total 1021 polling stations. The district election officer has arranged two helicopters to fly the polling officials to Gruttedu under Y Ramavaram mandal of Rampachodavaram assembly constituency.
Funds have been sanctioned early to install cell towers and improve roads to several polling stations in the district.
“We have set up check posts and are frisking suspicious persons at various locations in the district,’’ said a police officer.
Araku Lok Sabha seat (ST), which consists of LWE affected assembly segments like Paderu, Araku Valley, Rampachodavaram, Parvathipuram and Saluru, will go to polls on May 13.
The official said 30 polling booths in Chintoor and Munchingput mandals have been shifted due to the Maoist threat perception. The special police launched an area-domination exercise in the bordering areas of Odisha and Chhattisgarh after a large number of Maoists were neutralized in Chhattisgarh, to ensure they do not cross over to AP via the Odisha border, he added.
The outlawed Maoists recently released a pamphlet in Munchingput and other areas close to the Odisha border, appealing to the people to boycott the elections.
Maoists had shot down Araku MLA Kidari Sarveswara Rao and his predecessor Siveri Soma in Livitput village near Araku Valley on September 23, 2018, some 10 months before the 2019 elections.
In Parvathipuram Manyam district, out of the total 981 polling stations, 41 have been identified as Maoist-sensitive and 153 law and order problem stations.
