Haryana gears up for Assembly polls: 225 paramilitary companies, 60,000 security personnel deployed for Oct 5 elections

Haryana Director General of Police (DGP) Shatrujeet Kapoor on Wednesday said security has been tightened across the state ahead of the Assembly election on Saturday, October 5.

The Union home ministry has deployed 225 companies of paramilitary forces in the state, and the state authorities have deployed 60,000 security personnel in the wake of the assembly elections.

Haryana DCP said over 11,000 SPOs (Special Police Officers) are also stationed ahead of the elections.

DGP Kapoor said Haryana police will ensure fair and transparent conduct of elections in compliance with the Election Commission of India (ECI) guidelines.

To ensure fair and transparent elections, his department is keeping a strict vigil and has recovered a huge amount of money from different places in the state. The highest amount of money was recovered in Gurugram, Faridabad, and Ambala in the state, the DGP added.

"Over 60 crore rupees have been recovered across Haryana. The Nuh area has been identified as highly sensitive. In Nuh, 13 paramilitary companies have been deployed," ANI quoted DGP Kapoor as saying.

Recently, Haryana police seized 27,000 litres of liquor allegedly to be distributed among voters and uncovered a fake liquor factory as well.

Urging the public to vote in large numbers, DGP Kapoor said, "Democracy requires public cooperation."

Meanwhile, Haryana's Chief Electoral Officer, Pankaj Agarwal, said that control rooms have been set up at state, district, and assembly level to monitor webcasting at polling stations during assembly polls. Agarwal confirmed that the Election Commission will also oversee the process through webcasting.

Agarwal said only polling agents will be permitted to participate in authorised activities on polling day. Any involvement in prohibited activities will result in strict legal action. Detailed guidelines have been issued to ensure compliance, he added.

Haryana will go to the polls on October 5 to elect its 90-member legislative assembly, with the counting of votes scheduled for October 8.