No untoward incidents reported in city on election day, says Chennai Police Commissioner

Chennai polling stations secure with elaborate bandobust arrangements, ensuring peaceful voting process and tight security measures in place.

The polling was peaceful and no untoward incident was reported, said the Greater Chennai Police (GCP) Commissioner Sandeep Rai Rathore, after inspecting bandobust arrangements at several polling stations on Friday.

Later, talking to mediapersons, he said the three Lok Sabha constituencies in Chennai district and a few Assembly segments from Tiruvallur and Chengalpattu districts – altogether 24 – came under the jurisdiction of the GCP. Mr. Rathore said: “No law and order issue reported was reported. Everything proceeded smoothly and peacefully.” 

“We made elaborate security arrangements in 1,196 polling stations, at over 5,000 polling booths at those stations, and 898 vulnerable booths. Apart from that, we arranged the deployment of personnel outside the polling stations considering the locations’ history of incidents and other trouble-prone areas. Pickets were put up in 69 places”, Mr. Rathore said.

Mr. Rathore added that 400 mobile teams of police personnel were patrolling the city in addition to the Assistant Commissioners, and officers. He said over a thousand vehicles were out on patrol duty. As many as 20,000 personnel were doing round-the-clock duty for election-related bandobust. “We have put in place a system of multiple-layer bandobust from the morning of election day to ensure hassle-free arrival of voters. We will continue this until the last vote is polled,” he said.

Mr. Rathore also said four-layer security would be provided to three counting centres – Loyola College, Anna University, and Queen Mary’s college.

He added that the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) would guard the inner area of counting centres, while the Tamil Nadu Special Police and the Armed Reserve Police would guard the outer perimeter. With the local police personnel deployed outside the premises of counting centres, the four-layer security arrangement will be in place for 45 days until counting day.