IMPHAL, October 13: The number of security forces to be deployed during the 10th general election, 2012 will be more than doubled from what was deployed during the last general election in the state due to increase in population, stated chief electoral officer PC Lawmkunga during a press conference.
The press conference was held at his old secretariat office chamber in connection with the activation of a call centre and district control rooms this evening.
“A total of 2195 polling stations were used in the 2007 general election for which 220 paramilitary companies were deployed, there will be an increase of about 162 polling stations which means that there will be 2357 polling stations in the 2012 general election”, Lawmkunga informed mediapersons.
The number of polling stations will be increase as according to the 2011 census, there has been increase in population in the state.
“With the increase in the number of polling stations, the number of paramilitary companies to be deployed will also be increased from 220 to 466 in the forthcoming election” he added.
Meanwhile, further elaborating on the activation of a call centre and district control rooms, he stated that as per the instruction of election commission of India, a call centre and 11 control rooms at the office of the chief electoral officer, and the offices of district election officers of all nine districts and addl. deputy commissioners of Kangpokpi and Jiribam respectively have been activated today.
He further added that the call centre and the control rooms have been activated for the benefit of electors and other stake holders in Manipur.
The call centre is connected to the control rooms through the internet and both call centre and control rooms will be initially functional during office hours 10 am to 4:30 pm on all working days and subsequently, it will be functional 24 hours.
He further informed that the cell has been made functional throughout the state through BSNL and steps are being taken up to make it functional through other service providers such as Aircel, Airtel, Reliance, Vodafone, Idea, Tata Indicom etc.
He also added that the cell will be functional at other parts of the country as well.
Callers from inside the state through both landline and mobile phones can used the toll free no. 1950/18003453852, while callers from outside the state through both landline and mobile phones can accessed it at 1950/18003453852.
The call centre, according to the CEO, will work as a single window to take care of public grievances and can be utilized by the people to register any type of election related complaints pertaining to the state or to raise a query such as to how to get oneself registered as an elector, deletion of names from the electoral rolls, any electoral malpractice during election, complaint or suggestion regarding the functioning of the office of the district election officers, electoral registration officers, booth level officer or any other work related to the election department. The call centre may also be used-to enquire about the services offered by the election department and the office of chief electoral officer, Manipur, he added.
The queries will be related to the election to Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, Manipur Legislative Assembly and the offices of the President and the vice president, however, the office will not process any request related to elections to urban and rural local bodies and panchayati raj institutions, he added.
He further added that at the time of registering the queries and complaints, the complainants may disclose their names, address and mobile number to help the department to process their request faster. The complainants who provide their details will be given a registration number through SMS for tracking the progress of theur complaints, he added.
Steps are also being taken to enable the public to lodge their complaints through a web based application, he added.
He further elaborated that two sections of paramilitary forces will be deployed each at all hyper sensitive polling stations, while one section each will be deployed at all sensitive polling stations.
While deployment of paramilitary forces at the normal polling stations will depend on the sensitivity of the general area on which the respective station falls, he added.
He further added that a total of 7673 civil police personnel will be used during the 10th general election.
For Imphal east a total of 1098 police personnel will be used while another 2578 personnel will be used in Imphal west. In Bishnupur district, 713 civil police personnel will be deployed while Thoubal district will have 1041 personnel, he added.
A total of 435 police personnel will be deployed at Chandel district and another 370 personnel will be used at Ukhrul, while another 630 personnel will be used at Senapati district.
Another 320 personnel will be deployed at Tamenglong while a total of 488 personnel will be deployed at Churachandpur district, Lawmkunga informed the mediaperson.
Further elaborating on the coming general election, he informed that the number of woman electorate will be higher that of male electorate. There are 8,51,390 women who can vote while there are 8,25,207 male voters according to the 2011 census report, he added.
He has further stated that all district magistrates have been instructed to verify the numbers of licence guns in their respective districts and to further identify all hyper-sensitive and sensitive areas in their respective jurisdictions, so as to help in the deployment of security personnel during the forthcoming general election.