INDIA VOTES 2024: Drones deployed for surveillance on poll eve

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, May 31

Hi-tech unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), popularly known as drones, have been deployed for aerial surveillance in Ludhiana district.

This has been done to check the illegal activities of the candidates and political parties, especially distribution of freebies and indulging in any pull or pressure tactics to influence voters, in the expenditure sensitive areas of Ludhiana and Fatehgarh Sahib — five Assembly segments fall under Ludhiana district — parliamentary constituencies.

We have identified 167 expenditure sensitive pockets falling under four Assembly segments in the district following a detailed study of the socio-economic vulnerabilities, criminal track record, especially pertaining to cases registered under the NDPS Act, of the entire district spread across 14 Assembly segments falling under two parliamentary constituencies. Sakshi Sawhney, Ludhiana DEO-cum-DC

These drones have been put to use in four Assembly segments — Ludhiana South, Atam Nagar and Gill, which fall under Ludhiana Lok Sabha seat, and Sahnewal, which is part of Fatehgarh Sahib (reserved) parliamentary constituency.

Sharing details, the Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Election Officer (DEO), Sakshi Sawhney, who is the brain behind the novel initiative, told The Tribune, here on Friday that the drones have been put to use in the four Assembly segments in the district since 6 pm on Thursday when the electioneering came to an end and would continue to do aerial surveillance will the time polling ends on June 1.

“We have identified 167 expenditure sensitive pockets falling under four Assembly segments in the district following a detailed study of the socio-economic vulnerabilities, criminal track record, especially pertaining to cases registered under the NDPS Act, of the entire district spread across 14 Assembly segments falling under two parliamentary constituencies,” Sawhney added.

She said the specially-trained staff with the latest hi-tech drones have been fanned out across these 167 expenditure sensitive pockets to conduct aerial surveillance and record the illegal acts and distribution of freebies, if any, round-the-clock.

“During the past 24 hours, we have not yet found any incriminating activity in any of these expenditure sensitive or any other part of the district as well,” the DC-cum-DEO added.

She said the initiative was part of a slew of measures taken to ensure free, fair, smooth, peaceful and transparent conduct of election process.

“We are going the extra mile to closely monitor potential troublemakers in all the Assembly segments across the district with the help of advanced technology and tight security bandobast,” said Sawhney, adding these drones will also record the voting process at the polling stations falling under the four expenditure sensitive Assembly segments, and their monitoring will be coordinated from an integrated command centre at the District Administrative Complex.

She said as many as 18 companies and 2 platoons, comprising 1,200 personnel, of central armed paramilitary forces (CAPF), and 2,363 Punjab Police personnel have been put on election duty in the constituency.

While the CAPF have been given full control of Ludhiana South, Atam Nagar and Gill constituencies, they will also take care of parts of Ludhiana Central segment. Elsewhere, the CAPF, each team headed by a senior commandant, along with five quick reaction teams (QRTs) and state forces, each team headed by DCP, ADCP and ACP-level officers, have been deployed in each segment.

Besides, 235 sector magistrates, accompanied by cops and videographers, have also been deployed for patrolling in the district.

A heavy posse of 331 micro observers from the Centre; four election observers including — one general from the IAS (Divya Mittal), two expenditure observers from the IRS (Pankaj Kumar and Chetan D Kalamkar) and one from the IPS (Satish Kumar Gajbhiye); 82 QRTs and 42 flying squads were on the roll as 14 Assistant Returning Officers (AROs) will conduct polling at 2,921 polling stations across 1,410 locations, of which 221 have been earmarked as vulnerable, in the state’s biggest and largest district.

The DEO-cum-DC appealed to the voters to immediately report illegal activities and distribution of freebies, if any, noticed in any part of the district. “We will act tough against the culprits and nobody, irrespective of party and position, will be spared at any cost,” she added.