Telangana police starts issuing notices to licensed weapon holders

Telangana police have started issuing notices to over 9,000 licensed weapon holders, requesting that they deposit the firearms with them in view of the prevailing election code of conduct in the state, a senior police official said Tuesday.

Additional DGP (law and order) Jitender also said they had sought some companies of paramilitary forces from the Election Commission to support the state police in maintaining the law and order during the polls. "We have about 9,000 licensed weapons in the State. We have started issuing notices to them to deposit the weapons with us. They will be with us until the Model Code of Conduct is over," the police official told PTI.

He said they would ensure that all the weapons would be deposited with police by the time the notification for the Assembly polls was issued. The Election Commission had on October 6 announced the election schedule for five states, including Telangana, which will go to the polls on December 7.

Counting of votes for all these states will be taken up on December 11. The Telangana Assembly was dissolved on September 6.

The polls were originally scheduled to be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha election next year. However, the Assembly was dissolved prematurely last month, which necessitated the polls ahead of the schedule.

To a query, Jitender said the state police had sought some central forces from the Election Commission and expected them to deploy in the state two days before the polls. "We have about 55,000 policemen (of all ranks) with us. We sought some forces. We expect all of them to arrive here two or three days before the polls," he said without revealing the quantum of the force sought.

He said the State police was well prepared for the polls and special cells have already been formed to ensure the Code of Conduct was maintained.

(With inputs from agencies.)