Tamil Nadu, Andhra officials to step up surveillance on inter-state border ahead of polls
VELLORE: Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh government officials have decided to step up monitoring and surveillance on the inter-state border to restrict movement of anti-social elements, detect criminals evading warrants and control illicit arrack distillation ahead of the TN Assembly elections.
A meeting of top officials of the border districts of Vellore and Chittoor was held at Chittoor on Friday to discuss the steps to be taken to bring the border areas under the radar.
Vellore district collector A Shanmuga Sundaram, SP S Selvakumar and Chittoor collector M Harinarayanan and SP Senthilkumar held the discussions based on the directions issued by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on stepping up surveillance on inter-state borders.
“The ECI, during a recent meeting in Chennai, had issued directions and guidelines on inter-state border surveillance. Based on the directions, a meeting of collectors and SPs of neighbouring districts was held today,” Shanmuga Sundaram told reporters after the meeting.
He added, “The coordination meeting discussed controlling arrack distillation, checking movement of anti-social elements and arresting criminals, against whom non-bailable warrants pending, attempting to flee.”
Steps required for enhancing surveillance, creating more inter-state checkposts and deployment of additional personnel on the existing checks also came up for discussion.
“Currently, we have six inter-state checks posts (on Vellore-Chittoor border). They (AP) have 63 check posts. We may increase the number of check posts and deploy additional forces for effective monitoring,” Shanmuga Sundaram informed.
Forest personnel would be pressed into service for checking arrack distillation in the woods as Vellore and Chittoor districts share long forests including the Koundinya wildlife sanctuary and keeping an eye on smugglers of Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL).
Officials of Revenue, Forest and Excise departments from both sides and poll officials from Katpadi, Guidyatham and KV Kuppam Assembly constituencies, which share borders with Andhra Pradesh, also participated in the coordination meeting.
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