West Bengal Panchayat Polls Tomorrow: Confusion over Distribution of Central Forces Personnel in Booth Continues

With less than 24 hours left for the West Bengal panchayat polls, confusion over distribution of Central Armed Police Force personnel in booths is still continuing.

The confusion stems over the distribution 822 companies or 82,000 personnel of central armed forces evenly on 61,008 polling booths where polling will be held.

Under the existing availability, not more than two, which in certain cases might come down to just one, personnel can be deployed in each polling booth.

However, the company commanders of the central armed forces are not willing to go for deployments of half section or four personnel in each booth on two grounds.

The first ground is that as per the central law regarding deployment of central armed forces for polls, not less than half section or four personnel can be deployed in each booth. The second ground is that in case of major violence within the polling booth premises, it will be very risky for one or two central forces personnel to combat that violent mob. So under all circumstances, they want deployment of half section or four personnel on each booth.

The Inspector General of Border Security Force, who is the central coordinator of the rural civic body polls too, has written to the Union Home Ministry flagging concerns as genuine considering the present scenario in the state.

Already West Bengal has reported 17 pre-poll violence deaths since election dates were announced on June 8. Incidents of clashes and violence are continuing even after the completion of the campaigning phase on Thursday night.

However, with so many casualties, State Director General of Police Manoj Malviya feels that the incidents of violence and clashes are sporadic.

"Stray incidents of violence and clashes are being blown out of proportion and projected in a big way. There had been a couple of incidents, where the police had taken prompt action. We are working as per guidelines. The situation is well under control and incidents of violence have come down. The media is projecting minor incidents as major ones. This is not done," Malviya had said recently.