WELCOME BEST ELECTORAL PRACTICES AWARD OMVIR SINGH, IPS Senior Superintendent of Police (Law & Order) Puducherry District OMVIR SINGH, IPS Senior Superintendent of Police (Law & Order) Puducherry District

PRELIMINARY POLICE ARRANGEMENTS Immediately after the announcement of schedule for ‘General Elections 2014’, the Officers were instructed to begin the exercise of unearthing illegal arms/ammunition, booking of bad characters under various preventive sections of law, posting of men and checking of all vehicles at the inter-state borders, execution of all pending warrants, identification of vulnerable polling booths & political/communal sensitive pockets, action against the defacement of public / private properties, etc.

INTER-STATE CO-ORDINATION MEETING On , ‘Inter-State Co-ordination Meeting’ was convened with the senior Police Officers of Tamilnadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh as well as the senior officials of Intelligence Bureau in order to have better co-operation with the neighbouring district Police.

TRAINING SESSIONS Separate training sessions were arranged sub- division wise and the Police Officers & Men were briefed regarding the election-related laws and “do’s and don’ts” during the period of ‘model code of conduct’ as well as during the elections.

ACTION AGAINST ‘DEFACEMENT’ Steps were taken to prevent defacement of public/private properties. During the period of ‘model code of conduct’, as many as 40 cases were registered against the defacement.

ACTION AGAINST ‘M.C.C. VIOLATIONS’ Strict legal action was taken against the violators of ‘model code of conduct’. 104 cases were registered against such violations.

ACTION AGAINST ‘BRIBERY’ Distribution of money, liquor and bribery of gift items to the voters were monitored very closely. A total number of 27 cases were registered against such offence.

ACTION AGAINST ‘BAD CHARACTERS’ Necessary preventive action was taken against the bad characters to contain their illegal activities. 757 persons were bound over under the various preventive sections of Cr.P.C. during the period. 330 persons were identified as trouble-shooters, against whom necessary preventive action was initiated.

EXECUTION OF PENDING ‘NON-BAILABLE WARRANTS’ The Officers & Men, attached with the Special Task Force in three sub-divisions in Puducherry, were detailed exclusively for execution of pending Non-Bailable Warrants. Due to the sincere efforts taken by the three Teams, 255 Non-Bailable Warrants, which were pending for a prolonged period, were executed.

ACTION AGAINST ‘UNLICENSED ARMS’ Due to the sincere efforts taken by the Police, 157 licensed arms were deposited by the license- holders and 71 licenses were impounded and 20 licenses were cancelled by the District Collector, Puducherry.

IDENTIFICATION OF VULNERABLE AREAS/ POLLING STATIONS Identification of vulnerable areas (66) and vulnerable polling stations (73) was done in liaison with the revenue officials.

VIP SECURITY Necessary law & order and security arrangements were made to all the political leaders/VIPs, who came to Puducherry for electioneering.

DEPLOYMENT OF MANPOWER Despite paucity of manpower, necessary scale of Officers & Men was deployed in all the polling booths, especially vulnerable polling booths and vulnerable areas, as per the guidelines of the Election Commission of India.

TRANSPORTATION ARRANGEMENTS Due to shortage of vehicles, liaison was made with the Elections, Revenue & Transport Departments and vehicles were provided to the Sectoral/Zonal/Regional Officers by withdrawing vehicles from other departments as well as through hiring.

LOGISTIC ARRANGEMENTS TO C.A.P.F. Necessary logistic arrangements were made to the Central Armed Police Force including transportation, accommodation, etc. They were deployed for area domination, Flying Squads, border check-posts, Strong Room, vulnerable polling booths and striking reserves, etc.

STRONG ROOM ARRANGEMENTS Elaborate Police arrangements were made at the Strong Rooms with three-tier security in Puducherry, Mahe & Yanam and no untoward incident was reported during the period of storage of EVMs.

COUNTING ARRANGEMENTS The counting arrangements also went off peacefully. Sufficient Police arrangements at the counting centres, posting of Police Pickets at vulnerable places and intensive patrolling were ensured.

THANKS