DW BUREAU / Chandigarh

To ensure free, fair and peaceful upcoming Lok Sabha Elections-2024, Punjab Police on Sunday carried out a special operation 'OPS Seal-VI' aimed at checking all the vehicles entering or exiting the border state of Punjab to keep vigil around the movement of drug smugglers and bootleggers.

The operation was conducted in a synchronised manner from 8 am to 2 pm on the directions of Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav.

Special DGP Law and Order Arpit Shukla said that Senior Superintendents of Police (SSPs) of 10 border districts were asked to mobilise the maximum number of manpower to lay strong 'nakas' under the supervision of Gazetted officers/SHOs and effectively seal all the entry/exit points in their respective districts. SSPs were also directed to personally visit some of nakas at vulnerable spots, besides, liaising with their counterparts in neighbouring states to put joint nakas on their side as well to ensure effective Nakabandi as part of 'OPS Seal-VI', he added.

He said that well-coordinated strong nakas involving over 1500 Police Personnel were set up under the supervision of Inspectors/DSPs at all the 220 entry/exit points of 10 districts, which share boundaries with four border states and UT Chandigarh. The 10 inter-state border districts include Pathankot, Sri Muktsar Sahib, Fazilka, Ropar, SAS Nagar, Patiala, Sangrur, Mansa, Hoshiarpur and Bathinda.

He said that during the operation, a thorough search of suspected vehicles/persons was conducted while ensuring minimum inconvenience was caused to the general public. "We had strictly instructed all the Police Personnel to deal with every commuter in a friendly and polite manner while checking their vehicles during this operation," he added.

The Special DGP said that as many as 5137 vehicles entering/exiting the state were checked, of which 200 were challaned and 22 were impounded. Police teams have also verified the registration numbers of all the vehicles using the VAHAN mobile app.
(editor@dailyworld.in)