In a bid to ensure a peaceful and free and fair conduct of the general elections 2024, 75 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) will be deployed in Odisha.
Senior Police officials informed that 15 companies of CAPFs have already reached the state and they will be deployed in different districts of the state in the first phase.
Sanjay Kumar, ADG (Law and Order) on Saturday informed that the 15 companies of CAPFs will be deployed in Jajpur, Angul, Balasore, Puri, Sambalpur, Rourkela, Bhadrak, Berhampur, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Keonjhar, Bolangir, Cuttack (Rural), Ganjam (Chhatrapur) and Kendrapara by today evening.
According to Kumar, another 60 companies of CAPFs will be deployed in the second phase. A Committee headed by the Chief Electoral Officer has been constituted and a decision for deployment of the remaining forces will be taken shortly. The CAPFs will help Odisha Police personnel in patrolling, guarding the EVMs and other enforcement activities. CAPFs will also be deployed at critical booths and after polls, their deployment will be also for guarding ballot boxes and other important articles.
“The poll process is already in progress along with seizures and enforcement activities. Such drives will be intensified in the coming days. Once the Model Code of Conduct is enforced following the announcement of the election dates, checking and other enforcement activities will carried out,” Kumar added.