Tripura force to provide security in Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh polls
Agartala/Aizawl, Oct (IANS) A contingent of 685 jawans of Tripura’s elite Tripura State Rifles (TSR) would go to Mizoram and Madhya Pradesh for polling duties, officials said on Friday.
A senior TSR official said that the troopers led by two senior officials would first go to Mizoram and then to Madhya Pradesh.
Elections to the 40-member Mizoram assembly and 230-member Madhya Pradesh assembly would be held on November 7 and November 17 respectively. The counting of votes will be taken up on December 3 along with Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, and Telangana.
Besides providing security during the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, the India Reserve (IR) battalions of TSR had earlier performed election duties in more than 19 states to provide security during the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.
Trained in counter-insurgency operations, the TSR troopers have demonstrated excellent performance in Tripura in taming the four-and-a-half decades old terrorism in the northeastern state. In the IR battalion, 75 per cent of its personnel are from Tripura, while the remaining are from across the country.
The TSR has 14 battalions, majority of which are IR battalions, which can be deployed in any state of the country if the Ministry of Home Affairs so requires.
–IANS
sc/vd