Anticipating violence during the panchayat polls, the district election authorities have declared 86 per cent polling booths sensitive and hypersensitive here.

Of total 580 polling booths set up in the district, 497 have been declared sensitive and hypersensitive.Muktsar SSP Manjit Singh Dhesi said, “The situation is peaceful as of now, but we have taken adequate measures to deal with any kind of situation. The extra deployment will be done at hypersensitive locations.”

The District Magistrate to has imposed a ban on gathering of more than four persons in 200-m radius of the polling stations. The district administration has made all arrangements for fair polling. Deputy Commissioner-cum-District Election Officer Shiv Dular Singh Dhillon said there were 367 polling booths and around 2,000 employees have been put on duty.

Alka Meena, SSP, said 29 booths had been declared most sensitive and 120 sensitives in the district. Besides, 900 police personnel have been put on duty to maintain law and order. Meanwhile, the Gurdaspur police have dispatched police to all 105 sensitive and 64 hypersensitive booths.

Officers of the Batala police, which forms part of the Gurdaspur revenue district, have identified 150 sensitive and 39 hypersensitive booths. Deputy Commissioner Vipul Ujwal, who today took a round of the polling stations in the border areas of Dera Baba Nanak, said out of the 1,280 village panchayats, elections would be held in 850, while the rest of the panchayats had been chosen unanimously. As many as 103 booths of both Gurdaspur and Batala police districts have been declared hypersensitive.