North Kerala comes under security scrutiny as state heads to polls

Kozhikode: As Kerala goes to poll on Tuesday, the state is on high security alert. Preparations for polling on Tuesday are complete for all the 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in Kerala and 96 constituencies elsewhere in the country.

In Kerala's Kozhikode district, which includes the Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency, collector S Sambasiva Rao has declared prohibitory orders under Section 144. The order would be on immediately after the voting is over and would be revoked the next day, April 24, at 10pm in Vadakara municipality, Onchiyam, Nadapuram, Perambra and Kunnummal gramapanchayats.

Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code prohibits any assembly of five or more people in an area where it has been imposed. According to the law, every member of such 'unlawful assembly' can be booked. The maximum punishment for such act is three years. Moreover, obstructing police from breaking up an unlawful assembly is a punishable offence as well.

The Kozhikode collector also ordered not to organise any public gathering or rallies, until the voting is over. He also directed the district police chiefs (city and rural), flying squads and static surveillance teams to be vigilant and conduct raids.

Vadakara is one of the most sensitive constituencies in the state, where an intense fight is on between CPM strongman P Jayarajan and Congress crowd-puller K Muraleedharan. In the last two days, within hours, both the fronts organised gatherings of the families of the deceased party workers and honoured them. They also conducted cultural events to attract huge crowd.

On Sunday, youth wearing red dhoti and masking their face with red scarves were seen holding logs on Kuttiady roads. It is said villagers have been threatened not to vote against the will of the parties and if they do so it would be found out from polling data.

A huge police force also have been deployed across the state. For election duties alone, 58,138 police personnel have been deployed, which includes 3,500 women. Apart from the police, CISF, CRPF and BSF forces are camping in the state. Tamil Nadu government has sent 2,000 policemen and Karnataka has despatched 1.000 policemen for the voting in Kerala. About 57 companies of central forces will also be on duty. Twelve companies of CRFP men will guard strong rooms. (A company consists of 135 security personnel.)

Apart from the 58,138 cops, 11,781 special police personnel also have been deployed, according to the office of the state police chief Loknath Behera.

Web casting has been arranged for 3,621 booths identified as ‘problematic’; of these 219 are reportedly facing Maoist threat.