With the results to be declared on March 10 for the keenly fought 2022 Assembly polls in Punjab, elaborate security and other arrangements have been set in place for the counting of votes.
Punjab’s Chief Electoral Officer S. Karuna Raju said that counting of votes for 117 Assembly constituencies of Punjab will start from 8 a.m. onwards, for which 117 counting centres have been set up at 66 locations in the State. He said three-tier security measures have been set up with the deployment of 45 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) at all the 117 counting centres. As many as 7,500 personnel will be deputed for the counting process in the State, he added.
Mr. Raju said that a 100 metre radius around the counting centre area has been declared a ‘pedestrian zone’ and no one will be allowed to drive in that zone. “To prevent the entry of any unauthorised persons, three-tier cordoning points have been set up outside the counting centres. The first cordoning point is at the beginning of a 100 metre radius, where senior Magistrates along with the required police force remain to control the crowd. The second cordoning point would be at the gate of the counting centre, where the State Armed Police Forces have been deployed, while the third cordoning point has been set up at the entrance of the counting hall, which will be manned by the CAPF,” he said.
In view of the vote counting, Section 144 of the CrPC has been imposed in all the districts by the District Election Officers-cum-Deputy Commissioners, and gathering of people outside counting centres is prohibited.
