Home Ministry confirms deployment of additional central forces for Bengal panchayat polls

Kolkata, July 3 The West Bengal State Election Commission (SEC) informed the Calcutta High Court on Monday that the Union Home Ministry has confirmed sending 485 additional companies of central armed forces for the July 8 panchayat elections.

With this confirmation, the total deployment of central forces for the rural civic body polls will be 822 companies, as directed by the Calcutta High Court. A total of 337 companies have already been deployed.

However, despite the confirmation from the Home Ministry, the commission is yet to specify whether it will be able to deploy central forces personnel in all the polling stations.

The SEC is expected to update the high court on the details of the forces deployment on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, all the opposition forces in the state continue to be vocal demanding deployment of central armed forces in each and every polling booth.

Although the commission has confirmed the presence of armed security personnel in each and every booth, it is yet to confirm whether they will be central forces or personnel from the state police or those from other states.

As per the update given by the commission to the court, there will be deployment of additional forces at the sensitive booths and around 95 per cent of the total booths will be kept under CCTV coverage. Videography will be done in 5 per cent of the booths.

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