Amid all the hustle and bustle and madness surrounding Bihar Assembly elections, one usually tends to forget to credit the security forces for conducting smooth and fair polls in the state spread over a month.
It was for the first time that Central paramilitary forces, and not state police official, managed the five-phased Bihar Assembly polls.
The paramilitary forces were deployed in the state soon after the Election Commission announced the date for the elections.
To ensure smooth polling, the deployment of forces and allocation of their duties are decided following a discussion with the district administrations and polling officials.
"The paramilitary force along with district magistrate and district election official discuss which company will be deployed in a particular region, and what measures will be taken with the state police," said a CISF officer on condition of anonymity.
The paramilitary forces include Border Security Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Central Industrial Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force, Reserve Police Force and Sashastra Seema Bal.
"The confidence building among the voters is an important exercise to ensure them that polling will be done in a fair, secured manner. The exercise includes flag march, area domination. And along with state police, we conduct raids, barricading of areas," he added.
All the expenses of the paramilitary forces were borne by the state exchequer.
A day before each phase of voting, the polling staff, comprising presiding officer and two assistants, under a tight security cover of paramilitary forces put the electronic voting machine (EVM) in strong room.
"The booths are occupied a night before voting and the polling officer sleeps in the strong room. On the voting day, the sealed EVMs are collected from the strong room and are taken to the respective booths. The area is sanitised. The EVM seal is broken and mock voting happens in order to check the machine. The process should be completed by 6:30 AM," the CISF official said.
"Once the voting is over, EVMs are sealed again. And along with security personnel, they are deposited again in the strong room till the result date. A few paramilitary personnel are deployed for its security till result date," he said.
When asked about how the security personnel are deployed in a given area, the officer informed IBNLive that it is done on the basis of threat perception - whether its sensitive, highly sensitive or Naxal-infested.
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