Motorcyclists in and around the city are experiencing more than the usual hurdles in their path — they are being stopped and frisked more often by policemen.

While the traffic police concentrate on offences like drunken driving or riding without a helmet, men from the local police stations have been put on high alert for miscreants out to disrupt the pre-election calm, or the proceedings on poll day itself.

“The local police stations have been instructed to monitor two-wheeler movement into and around the city to stop the infiltration of miscreants,” a senior traffic police officer said.

The cops have figured out how motorcyclists seeking to create disturbance during elections operate. Generally with two pillion-riders per two-wheeler, the motorcyclists move along the main roads, keeping a wide escape route open in case they are chased by police or opponent party supporters.

Carrying single-shot pistols or crude hand-bombs, the mobile hoodlums can create panic at the polling booths by zooming down the bylanes, firing a shot in the air or lobbing a bomb.

The trouble-prone areas have been identified as Amherst Street, College Street, Burrabazar, the Sealdah flyover, Bagbazar, Kidderpore, Topsia, Tiljala and pockets of Metiabruz.

With pre-election vigil thus strengthened, the city police should be feeling good about having taken all preventive measures. However, a section of officers, requesting anonymity, expressed their concern over loopholes in the security blanket.

“On election day, we have been asked to watch out for trouble-makers on two-wheelers in the vicinity of the polling booths. But, at the same time, we have been instructed not to interfere with the supporters of various political parties moving around on two-wheelers with flags and banners,” a senior officer said.

“We will be intensifying our vigil on two-wheelers on election day to ensure that no untoward incident takes place,” H.P. Singh, deputy commissioner of police (headquarters), stresses on Wednesday.