At least 10,000 police personnel have been roped in from the neighbouring Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for security arrangements in the run up to the Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu. The armed guards will be deployed at about 3,000 places identified as “vulnerable” locations across the State before the April 19 polling.
The Director-General of Police & Head of Police Force Shankar Jiwal told The Hindu on Thursday that the police personnel were being pooled in for deployment as per the guidelines of the Election Commission of India. This would be a reciprocating measure where the State would send an equal number of police teams to the neighbouring States ahead of their respective polling dates.
The manpower from other States would be in addition to the 1.25 lakh plus police force of Tamil Nadu, hundreds of Home Guards and Ex-servicemen and 190 companies of Central Armed Police Force personnel already deployed. While implementing the deployment and other bandobust guidelines of the ECI, the focus was also on providing VVIP security during the campaign.
