Chandigarh: As many as 22% of the total polling stations have been declared as "vulnerable" in Punjab by the Election Commission of India (ECI) for the February 20 state assembly elections.
There are a total of 24,740 polling stations for the 117-seat Punjab of which the ECI has identified as many as 5,337 (more than one-fifth) as vulnerable to the law-and-order problems on polling day.
The state government had sought as many as 1,050 companies of Central forces while the Union government has allotted 700 companies of central armed police forces (CAPF) to Punjab for the assembly polls and 650 of them have already reached state. The heavy bundobust of the police and para-military is required for Punjab which also has its borders with Pakistan.
A company has practically about 64 personnel available for active ground duty. The Central forces companies would be besides about 80,000-odd personnel of the state police for the election duty.
The Ludhiana district has the highest number of 712 vulnerable polling stations while Jalandhar has 488 such polling stations, Fazilka, 391 and Ferozepur has 325.
Likewise, the Malerkotla district has the minimum vulnerable polling stations - 39, while Faridkot has 43 such polling stations, Mansa, 93 and Sangrur has 103 such polling stations.
Also, the ECI has identified as many as 17 constituencies as expenditure sensitive where expenses by a candidate each on the polls are expected to exceed the maximum limit of Rs 40 lakh.
While Ludhiana district has the highest number of such constituencies at four - Sahnewal, Ludhiana South, Atam Nagar, and Gill seats, Amritsar has three such seats - Majitha, Amritsar Central, and Amritsar East – while Bathinda too has three such seats - Rampura Phul, Bathinda Urban and Maur.
It may be recalled that there are 1,304 candidates in the fray this time which is the highest ever. Punjab is also going to witness a multi-cornered contest between the ruling Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bahujan Samaj Party (SAD-BSP) alliance, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Punjab Lok Congress (PLC)-SAD (Sanyukt) coalition and the Sanyukt Samaj Morcha (SSM), a farmers’ outfit.
SEIZURES WORTH OVER Rs 479 CR
Meanwhile, Punjab’s chief electoral officer Dr S Karuna Raju said that various valuables worth over Rs 479 crore had been seized till Wednesday since last month when the model code of conduct came into force. He said these included liquor worth over Rs 32 crore and other psychotropic substances worth over Rs 352 core. Besides, of the total over 3.91 lakh licensed weapons, over 3.8 lakh had been deposited, he added.
