Over 500 companies of paramilitary forces for Karnataka polls

More than 500 companies of paramilitary forces -- 50,000 personnel -- will be required for the May five Assembly polls in Karnataka, in addition to those drawn from the state police.

"We require more paramilitary forces as it is a single phase poll", Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer Anil Kumar Jha told a press conference here today, adding "We require more than 500 companies".

The Election Commission has convened a meeting with senior officials of the Home and Railway ministries in New Delhi tomorrow to discuss the issue, he said.

Jha said a Systematic Voters' Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) campaign would be conducted in the State to exhort the people to participate in the poll process, particularly in Bangalore where the poll percentage in the 2008 election was "not that much".

He said an EC team, led by Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath, which interacted with representatives of political parties and also Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police here earlier this month, would come Bangalore again in a week's time to review the election preparedness. Jha said the model code of conduct has come into force from last evening and the Government would have put on hold all announcements, new works and schemes and "every thing" barring in "emergency cases" such as drought relief and drinking water. "No new work will take-off".

Voters' list is being revised continuously, and 1.65 lakh names have been added to the earlier announced total electorate of 4.18 crore, including 2.04 crore women.

Jha admitted that there are some errors in the voter database and those are being corrected. "Already 43,000 such cases have been corrected".

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