608 companies of Central Forces to be deployed for 5th phase

Six hundred and eighty companies of Central Forces will be deployed for the fifth phase of election scheduled to be held on 30 April.

Election will be held in 52 constituencies spreading over three districts, Kolkata (four seats), Hooghly (18 seats) and South 24 Paragnas (30 seats). Heavyweights like Mamata Banerjee, Sovan Chatterjee, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, Aroop Biswas, Manish Gupta, Partha Chatterjee, Biman Banerjee, Subrata Mukherjee and Sonali Guha will be contesting in the fifth phase.

In Kolkata 109 companies of Central Forces will be deployed to man four constituencies in South Kolkata. In Hooghly 238 companies of Central Forces will be deployed while another 333 companies of Central Forces will be deployed to ensure free and fair election. In addition to this, there will be 26,000 state police personnel.

A senior official of Election Commission said Central Forces had reached Hooghly and began route march to build confidence of voters. A Congress delegation on Tuesday met Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Gupta and alleged that outsiders had come to Hooghly to create trouble on the day of the poll. It has been decided that the micro observers will report directly to the Election Commission of India and not to the CEO as ECI has got information that micro observers were not informing them properly.

There will be 34 general observers, three police observers and 11 expenditure observers. Sunil Gupta on Tuesday held a video conference with all the observers and discussed on the poll preparedness. The EC has intensified surveillance along river Hooghly.

The SDPO of Kakdwip and officers in charge of Jibantala, Panchasayaer, Harwood Point and Kasba police stations have been transferred. Till date 11 senior officers including the Commissioner of police, Kolkata have been transferred since election notification came into force. All election officials have been asked to keep their cell phones on so that any decision can be communicated to them immediately.

Dibyendu Sarkar, additional CEO said like in the past prohibitory order under Section 144 CrPC would be promulgated in the fifth phase also. The Commissioner of Police in Kolkata and the District Magistrates would decide the area where it would be in force.