M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, April 27: The Palamu Deputy Inspector General of Police R K Lakra and SP Chandan Kumar Sinha, additional SP Ops B K Mishra along with a battery of sub-divisional police officers even drawn from JAP and IRB held a brainstorming session over the incident-free conduct of the panchayat polls which are a 4 phase affair here in Palamu.
All eyes are on Naxals and anti-social forces. Sources said the panchayat elections in Palamu despite its being a left-wing extremist hit district have been a free cartwheeling.
Naxals have not thrown any spanner in the conduct of the panchayat elections in the past fearing it will boomerang upon their already declining people base.
“However, Palamu SP is a tough taskmaster who does not want to take any chance,” said one police officer requesting anonymity.
Although the CRPF will not be directly involved in the rural body election, nevertheless, it has to carry on extensive and intensive area domination to keep Naxals at bay. The CRPF is to assist in the sanitization of the road, discovery or detection of improvised explosive devices etc. The local police have to keep an eye on the troublemakers.
A tradition set by the first DGP of Jharkhand Shivajee M Caire wherein he had directed his top police officers to sit, talk and hear the chowkidars to know the ground situation has been cold shelved.
Police sources said the officers in charge of the police stations are the lords of the chowkidars.
In the panchayat elections, the role of the chowkidars is unbelievably enormous but the chowkidars continue to remain in the last gear of things, said police sources.
Anti Naxals operation is on the anvil in Palamu to secure a safe ambience of the clusters where will assemble the polling parties. The topography of the clusters holds importance and all clusters are to be well secured, cops were told.
Police sources admitted that in recent weeks the CPI Maoists have suffered huge debacles at the Bulbul jungle and before that the arrest of their top leaders like Prashant Bose etc have made the Maoists ‘a wounded but not incapacitated force’ and it may try to get into any aberration this panchayat election which may give it some come back relief.
The Maoists in the past had held bandhs too ostensibly to decry the arrest of their polit bureau members while sources close to the Maoists said they were testing their own waters as to if their awe and fear among the masses is the same which is used to be in the early twenties.
Palamu SP said, “We will be pulling out all stops to have fear free polls. Police are keeping a close tab on the anti-social forces.”
Aerial surveillance by drones on the day of voting will have a far-reaching value addition to the security of the polls admitted police sources.
