Punjab’s chief electoral officer S Karuna Raju on Monday said the state has urged the Election Commission to deploy 1,050 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) for the February 20 assembly polls. Fifty CAPF companies have already been deployed, he said.

On depositing licensed weapons, Raju said of the total 3.9 lakh licensed weapons in the state, over 3.3 lakh, which is 86.5 per cent, have been deposited till date. Replying to a question on seizures made in the run-up to the elections, he said various enforcement teams had seized valuables worth Rs 42.94 crore till January 16.

The surveillance teams have seized 5.44 lakh litres of liquor worth Rs 1.54 crore, recovered psychotropic substances amounting to Rs 40.82 crore besides confiscating unaccounted cash worth Rs 16 lakh, he added. Replying to a query on the requirement for pre-certification of social media campaigning content from the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC), Raju said social media is no different from the general media and the same rules will be applied to any political campaign run on social media.

With the Election Commission (EC) rescheduling the Punjab Assembly polls, Raju said the notification for the elections will be issued on January 25. The last date of filing nominations is February 1, while the scrutiny of nominations will be done on February 2.

The deadline for the withdrawal of candidature is February 4. Accepting a demand by the state government and various political parties, the EC earlier in the day decided to hold the single-phase assembly polls in Punjab on February 20 instead of February 14 in view of Guru Ravidas Jayanti. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.

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