Summary:
Berhampur: With just a few months left for the panchayat elections, the police are gearing up for the process. "These election-related cases were from pre, post as well as election time," an official source said.The highest number of 47 poll-related cases had been registered under Berhampur police district while Ganjam (45), Boudh (27), Gajapati (17) too reported election related incidents. "Only two such cases had been registered in Kandhamal district," the source added.Sources, however, claimed no poll-related causality was reported in these districts in the last panchayat elections.Police, though, seemed worried with the sudden rise in crimes in rural areas ahead of the elections. As a first step, the police have decided to put in known anti-socials in the districts of Berhampur, Boudh Ganjam , Gajapati and Kandhamal behind bars.Inspector General of Police (southern range) Amitabh Thakur asked the superintendents of police to launch a special drive to put the anti-socials behind bars before the elections for the rural bodies, scheduled to be held in the month of February, next year. "Apart from the special drive, we have asked them to prepare a list of troublemakers, identify the vulnerable areas keeping in view of the pre and post-poll violence reported in the previous election and to make a list of the areas categorized as hyper sensitive, sensitive and low-sensitive for trouble-free panchayat elections," Thakur said.In the last panchyat election held in 2012, as many as 138 poll-related cases had been registered in the five police districts..