Assam Police gears up for Lok Sabha polls

R DUTTA CHOUDHURY

GUWAHATI, Feb 22 – Though the dates for the ensuing general elections are yet to be announced, the Assam Police force is gearing up for the polls and a major shake up of the entire force is being done as per the guidelines of the Election Commission.

Talking to The Assam Tribune, the Director General of Assam Police, GM Srivastava said that the force is already in election mode and asserted that all the guidelines of the EC would be strictly adhered to before the stipulated date.

The DGP said that the EC has issued strict guidelines for posting of police officers before the elections and a massive exercise is on to shake up the force to comply with the EC’s instructions.

He said that as per the guidelines, any officer, who worked for three years in a particular place would have to be transferred and the same exercise is on, which resulted in the transfer of a number of police officers including officers of the rank of Superintendent of Police (SP).

In addition to the three year rule, no officer would be allowed to function in his or her home district during the elections and the officers, with whom the EC had any problem in the past would not be allowed to be engaged in poll duty.

Moreover, the officers, who have less than six months of service left, would also not be engaged in election duty. However, the constables are not included in the purview of the guidelines of the EC.

Srivastava pointed out that the shake up in the police force turned out to be a major event as “we cannot transfer officers whimsically and before transferring and posting any officers many factors need to be looked into. But we will complete the process before the time stipulated by the EC.”

The DGP said that after the entire process of transfer of officers is completed and the officers take charge of their respective areas, the process of preparations to ensure violence free elections would start.

“What we are doing now is reorganizing the force as per the guidelines of the EC and the actual preparations of the police force for the elections will start after the announcement of the election dates,” he added.

The DGP also admitted that the threat perception from the militants during the ensuing polls is yet to be thoroughly assessed and this would be done only after the announcements of the dates of the polls.