Inter-State Coordination Meet For Smooth Conduct Of General Elections Held In City

Bhubaneswar: Ahead of the upcoming general elections, an inter-state coordination meeting for the smooth conduct of elections was held at Bhubaneswar on Friday.

Top police officers of five states such as Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Telangana were present in the meeting. They discussed the irregularities and problems faced during the elections. At the outset, Development Commissioner-cum-Additional Chief Secretary, Asit Kumar Tripathy and DGP Dr R.P. Sharma briefed about the meeting.

Tripathy called upon the participating officers from different neighbouring states to be prompt and co-operative in sharing intelligence on issues relating to cross border extremism, coastal security, inter-state movements of criminals etc.

He said that such meetings would go a long way in solving several major issues ahead of the General Elections, 2019.

In his introductory speech, Dr Sharma welcomed all the participants and hoped that this meeting would help in sharing of real time intelligence as well as check the cross border movement of criminals to a great extent. Strategies can emerge at the end of the meeting to check illegal transportation of contraband, drug trafficking, illegal cross border movement of weapons, counterfeit notes and Maoist movement, added Dr Sharma.
IGP, SIW, Ghanashyam Upadhyay gave a presentation on Left-wing extremism and Maoist challenges to the election process. IPS, ADGP, Law and Order Sanjeeb Panda, gave a presentation on the smooth conduct of the forthcoming elections.

Besides, ADGP, Andhra Pradesh Nalin Pravat, Telengana IGP Sreenivasa Reddy,  Chhatisgarh DIGP Amresh Mishra, Jharkhand DIGP Kuldip Diwedi and West Bengal DIGP Devendra Prakash Singh gave presentations on issues relating to the smooth conduct of the General Elections.

Several core policing issues were taken up and discussed vividly in the meeting.

Issues like nomination of Election Nodal Officer for liaisoning with neighbouring states, strategies to be adopted to deal with insurgents and extremists, regular intelligence and infrastructure sharing like helicopters, speed boats etc. in critical areas, curbing illegal movement of liquor, freebies, cash, weapons, criminals etc. on the border, sealing of borders during election process, action against inter-state criminals, co-ordination with coastal security forces, frequent organisation of Inter-District/Range border meetings, requirement of mobile and static communication equipments, experience sharing  of 2014 election etc were discussed minutely in the meet.