Ahead of the crucial Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) elections scheduled for January 15, the Nagpur police have launched a comprehensive and coordinated security and preparedness drive. The force is conducting a series of high-level inter-departmental meetings to ensure the polling process is free, fair, and completely incident-free.
Booth-Level Readiness Takes Center Stage
Senior police officials are spearheading coordination meetings that bring together key stakeholders from the police and civic administration. These include nodal officers (Assistant Commissioners of Police), senior police inspectors, returning officers, assistant returning officers, and deputy engineers from various constituencies. The aim is to streamline all election-related arrangements and eliminate gaps in planning.
Police Commissioner Ravinder Singal stated that the meetings follow directions issued on December 18 and focus intensely on booth-level preparedness. "A comprehensive review of booth jurisdictions, responsibilities, and readiness has been undertaken across RO-wise, nodal officer-wise, and SrPI-wise segments," Singal said. He emphasized that special attention is being paid to crowd management and ensuring peaceful polling, with discussions also covering the provision of assured minimum facilities (AMFs) at all polling stations.
Joint Verification and Physical Inspections Underway
Zonal Deputy Commissioner of Police Rashmitha Rao detailed the joint verification process. Police and NMC officials are meticulously checking mandatory items on a checklist that includes functional CCTVs, proper compound walls, clear 100-meter and 200-meter perimeter zones, signage, toilets, lighting, and uninterrupted power supply at every polling station.
"Nodal officers and SrPIs are conducting site inspections, flagging deficiencies on the spot, and escalating issues to zonal officers and ROs or AROs for immediate rectification," Rao explained. Following a key directive from senior officers like Joint Commissioner of Police Navinchandra Reddy, a 100% physical verification of all polling booths must be completed by December 26. This verification is being done jointly by ROs, AROs, SrPIs, and ACPs to proactively identify and address any vulnerabilities.
Learning from the Past, Planning for the Present
The police have independently categorized all polling booths as critical, sensitive, or vulnerable. This classification is based on past crime records, previous law-and-order incidents, local geography, and demographic factors. DCP Rashmitha Rao noted that valuable lessons from recent elections, including the nagar panchayat polls in Besa-Pipla and Bahadura and the November 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Zone 4, have been integrated into the current bandobast planning. These learnings have led to refinements in barricading strategies, personnel deployment, patrolling patterns, and voting-day precautions.
Furthermore, meetings at zonal DCP offices have involved a review of incidents reported during the 2017 NMC elections. Officers analyzed the root causes of past problems to finalize preventive strategies for the upcoming polls. Issues like overlapping booth jurisdictions in some zones were specifically flagged, and nodal officers were instructed to coordinate corrections through the returning officers.
Special Teams Activated and Manpower Mobilized
Commissioner Singal outlined the deployment of specialized teams to monitor the electoral process. The deployment of Static Surveillance Teams (SSTs), Flying Squad Teams (FSTs), and Video Surveillance Teams (VSTs) is being optimized for maximum coverage and effectiveness. Simultaneously, intelligence (khufiya) and detective branch (DB) units have been fully activated to gather and act on real-time information.
To ensure maximum manpower availability, staff leave has been restricted across the force. Additionally, all riot control equipment has been made operational, with drills scheduled to commence from December 26. In DCP Rao's office, specific briefings were held for ROs and AROs from Dhantoli, Hanuman Nagar, and Nehru Nagar NMC zones, along with police officials from corresponding stations, to clarify joint responsibilities.
The police are currently managing a multi-front workload that includes election security, New Year's Eve bandobast, and routine crime control. The coordinated inter-departmental effort is expected to not only strengthen coordination but also expedite the upgrade of assured minimum facilities and ensure a robust security blanket for the smooth conduct of the NMC elections.
