Delhi elections: One-fourth polling premises identified as 'critical'

New Delhi: About one-fourth of the polling premises for the upcoming Assembly polls have been identified as “critical” by the Delhi Election Commission and will need extra safety and security arrangements. The number of critical polling premises has more than doubled since the last Delhi assembly election. In 2008, there were 264 such critical premises, but this time around, 634 premises have been identified as critical. [caption id=“attachment_1169377” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Sheila Dikshit. PTI. [/caption] According to the data provided by DEC, there are 501 polling premises which have been identified as ’low critical’ and another 133 have been termed as ‘high critical’. In 2008, the figures for ’low critical’ and ‘high critical’ stood at 224 and 40 respectively. For 70 assembly constituency seats, there are 11,763 polling stations in 2,603 polling premises. Senior officials said the number of such premises may go up with the nearing of the election date of December 4. The vulnerability mapping of polling premises is a continuous process and will go on till the time the polls are held, the officials said. Delhi’s Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Dev said, “It is a continuous process and being carried out by officials on daily basis. The parameters for identifying an area as critical are political turmoil, percentage of voting in last election, caste or any related issues among others.” A senior official said influence and intimidation by any particular political party and susceptibility to money and liquor are also counted in determining criticality of poll premises. Dev said special arrangements will be made at the critical polling premises with the assistance of Central Armed Police forces. He said as far as security measures are concerned, 35,000 Delhi police personnel, 11,788 Home Guards and 82,000 civil staff will be deployed to conduct peaceful elections. The Election Commission has made arrangements of 18,000 ballot units and 12,000 control units for election. A voting machines consist of two units, control unit and ballot unit. These two units are inter-connected when the voting machine is put in operation by means of a cable, one end of which is permanently attached to the ballot unit. A ballot unit caters to up to 16 candidates. Four ballot units linked together catering up to 64 candidates can be used with one control unit. The EC has constituted flying squads, enforcement teams, video surveillance teams, among other measures to keep a check on illegal distribution of liquor by political parties. PTI