CHENNAI: With the second and last phase of local body polls on Wednesday, the State police have made preparations for the next stage, on Friday - providing security at the numerous counting centres across Tamil Nadu. The department plans to deploy over 50,000 police personnel to guard the centres round the clock.Police officials said that the 1,072 counting centres in the State would have four-tier security. The centre will have personnel at the entrance, inside the compound, in front of the counting room and inside the room. A four-tier security has already been put in place at the 500 counting centres, where EVMs from the first phase of polling have been kept. The rest of the 572 centres will be covered after the second phase of polling on Wednesday.Apart from the 50,000 personnel, men from the Tamil Nadu Special Police battalion will also be deployed, police officials said. The services of police from other states would not be required during counting process and they would leave after the second phase of polling. “They will leave because this is a local election. We will not require their help,” said an official. Ex-servicemen, home guards, NSS volunteers and NCC cadets, who were part of the security provided for the two phases of polling, would also not be utilised during counting. “Home guards may be used in some places and there again, they will only be regulating queues,” an official said.Police sources said that sensitive counting centres would be identified after the second phase of polling and factors like places in which key contestants compete and areas that had earlier reported cases of violence, will be considered. “There were problems in a well-known college in Chennai last time. Those kind of issues will be considered when we decide on the sensitive areas,” the official added.Besides videographing the entire process, representatives of political parties and others, who enter the counting centres, will be frisked. “One cannot take flammable materials inside,” a police official said.
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