07 May,2009 11:30 AM IST | | Agencies
The national capital was put under heavy security as it went to the Lok Sabha polls today with 55,000 police personnel fanned across the city and Quick Reaction Teams (QRTs) patrolled several areas to ensure an incident-free polling here.
At least one armed security personnel was deployed at all the 2,565 polling stations, including 293 sensitive and hyper-sensitive booths, in seven Lok Sabha constituencies while senior officials surveyed various parts of the city. However, there was no deployment of central police forces like CRPF and CISF in the city unlike in the previous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections as authorities said it will not be logistically possible to move forces from other states to Delhi during the elections.
A total of 38,834 Delhi Police personnel were deployed in polling stations, pickets and patrolling while 11,213 Home Guards from three states assisted them. Three platoon carriers (25 personnel each) led by Station House Officer, Inspector (Law and Order) and Inspector (Anti-Terror Operations) surveyed areas in their respective police stations.
"The experiment of deploying mobile teams had ensured a peaceful election during the previous Assembly elections. The mobile teams have found to act as a deterrent. So we decided to continue with it," the official said.
