NT NETWORK
PANAJI
Security will be beefed up across Goa for the assembly election to be held on February 4 with the Centre assigning 90 companies of paramilitary forces to the state for smooth conduct of the election process.
The paramilitary forces will begin arriving in the state in the next two days, said additional chief electoral officer, N S Navti, on Friday. He said that the office of the state election commission had sought 53 companies of paramilitary forces but is being granted additional forces, higher by almost 70 per cent.
A company of paramilitary force comprises of around 100 personnel.
The cost of the security, however, is being fully funded by the state exchequer. In previous assembly elections, the cost of security was shared in the ratio of 50:50 between the state and the Centre.
Navti said that the demand for security forces was made after consultation with the local police department and after an assessment of the law and order situation in the state. “Requirements of security for the current assembly elections have increased significantly,” said Navti. “In the 2012 elections, each constituency had one flying squad but in the 2017 elections, there will be three flying squads in every constituency,” he said.
Deployment of paramilitary forces will be done for security of polling personnel, safety of EVM machines and implementation of the code of conduct. During the 2012 elections, about 43 paramilitary force companies were granted by the Centre.
The election commission office will be publishing the phone numbers of the flying squads for the convenience of the public. A media certification and monitoring committee (MCMC) has been set up to certify the contents of advertisements and video clips. All electronic and print media publicity material will be certified by the committee before it is released to the public.
The Goa assembly election will take place during peak tourist season in the state. Speaking on the effect of elections on tourism, Navti said it will not impact tourism in any way and also not disturb the existing business. “The previous assembly elections were also held in tourist season and did not have an adverse impact on tourism,” he said.
Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, Nila Mohanan, has been brought back as North Goa District Collector on Friday.
Navti said that the demand for an IAS officer as Collector was from the state election commission and did not amount to violation of the code of conduct.