Shimla, Oct 24: Ahead of the state assembly elections, 15 companies of paramilitary force will be deployed mainly on the interstate barriers to check illegal movement of cash, liquor, drugs and other items aimed to woo voters.
A total of 93 such barriers have been operationalised on the borders of Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, UP and J&K. Una, with 25 barriers, has the largest number, followed by Kangra with 21,said DGP Somesh Goyal.
A total of 65 companies of paramilitary force -23 from ITBP, 15 each from BSF and CRPF and 12 from SSB, will be deployed for the elections by the state police. Besides, the state police will mobilise approximately 11,500 policemen alongwith 6,000 homeguards to provide security during the electoral process.
Himachal Pradesh has close to 87,000 arms licence holders, which is one of the highest arms to population ratio in the country. Over 36,000 arms have already been deposited with the police so far.
Also, more than 27 lakh Indian currency have been seized by various agencies in the last 10 days. The state police alone have seized Rs 23.87 lakh in cases, where the carrier did not have any plausible explanation for carrying cash.
The police have also registered 35 cases under the NDPS Act and booked 38 persons and recovered 11.68 kg charas, 9 kg ganja, 7.7 kg poppy husk, nearly 1 kg opium and some quantities of heroine, smack and capsules in the last 10 days.
Goyal said the police have recovered various types of liquor in the last 10 days. He also added that 40 proclaimed offenders involved in various crimes in Himachal have also been nabbed.
Source The India Express
