LS polls: Uttarakhand Police to monitor booths in remote areas through drones

Dehradun (Uttarakhand) [India], April 4 (ANI): The state police will keep watch on polling stations and their immediate surroundings in the remote areas during the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

“In the Lok Sabha General Elections 2024, Uttarakhand Police will monitor polling stations and surrounding areas located in inaccessible parts of extremely remote areas through drones,” the State Election Commission (SEC) informed through an official release on Wednesday.

“There are many places where it is not possible to install CCTV cameras and where surveillance, photo, and videography are very difficult tasks due to the difficult geographical conditions in Uttarakhand,” it noted.

It added that considering the logistical and topographical challenges, a process has been put in motion to monitor polling stations located in extremely remote areas as well as nearby polling stations where CCTV cameras cannot be installed, including roads, lanes or residential colonies.

A temporary control room has also been opened by the state police to scan live visuals sent by drones.

“While inspecting and testing the pictures and videos sent by the drone, information about suspicious persons, objects and activities will be immediately sent to the Election Operations Centre located at the police headquarters,” the state poll panel added in its release.

Further, the state poll panel informed that the Election Operations Centre will send information about the suspicious person, object, place or incident to the police officer concerned, immediately after which, an initial detailed investigation will be conducted by searching the said person, object or place.

Any future problems related to law and order will be resolved at the earliest, it informed further.

Earlier, on Wednesday, the state’s Additional Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Kumar Jogdande took stock of poll preparedness ahead of the seven-phased general elections.

Speaking to ANI, Jogande said as many as 65,160 elderly persons in the state, who are aged 85 or above, are registered to get their fingers inked this time. The state poll panel has arranged for them to vote from home through the postal ballot.

All five Lok Sabha seats in Uttarakhand will poll in a single phase on April 19, the Election Commission (EC) informed while announcing the full schedule of the general elections.

Earlier, the state’s Chief Electoral Officer BVRC Purushottam instructed Excise Commissioner Prashant Arya to step up monitoring of the sale and seizure of liquor across the state ahead of the general elections.

While giving instructions to install CCTVs at the check posts for monitoring purposes, the CEC also instructed them to provide daily reports to his office, according to an official statement.

The BJP has fielded Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah, Anil Baluni, Ajay Tamta, Ajay Bhatt, and Trivendra Singh Rawat for these seats.

Former chief minister Trivendra Rawat and former Rajya Sabha MP Baluni are in the fray from Haridwar and Pauri.

The BJP won all the Lok Sabha seats in the state in the 2014 and 2019 elections. (ANI)