‘Zero Poll Violence’ campaign Launched; 400 Companies of Central Forces for Tripura Polls

Agartala: To ensure free and fair elections in Tripura a total of 400 companies of central forces will be deployed. Elections to the 60-member assembly will be held on February 16. In the last assembly elections in 2018, 300 companies of central forces were deployed in Tripura.

The Election Commission has already launched a ‘Zero Poll Violence’ campaign in the northeastern state.

The Central forces to be deployed in Tripura include around 200 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF). The CAPF personnel will be arriving in Tripura by the first week of February. After arrival they will start area domination, patrolling and flag march apart from counter-insurgency operations, informed Assistant Inspector General (Law & Order) Jyotishman Das Chowdhury, as reported by The Telegraph.

According to the Tripura administration, in total 400 companies of central forces will be deployed in the state to ensure free, fair, and peaceful elections.

They will be in addition to the security personnel already deployed in this northeastern state. Tripura’s own security personnel as well as BSF jawans will continue to guard the India-Bangladesh border as before.

Tripura has 3,328 polling booths, where polling will be held on February 16. Out of them, 1,100 booths are declared as ‘sensitive’.  Twenty-eight booths in Tripura are termed as ‘critical’.

Meanwhile, rampant vehicle checking has been started in Tripura. Till Wednesday, 11,000 vehicles had been inspected in Tripura.

Due to the extra vigil of security forces ahead of the assembly polls, contraband worth Rs 5.89 crore has been seized in addition to the seizure of firearms by the security personnel.