ECI to conduct aerial surveillance in Bengal’s Maoist-affected areas

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has decided to carry out aerial surveillance in the areas which were once Maoist-dominated. 

The ECI has already sought three helicopters from the Ministry of Home of Affairs for the purpose. 

It may be mentioned that the commission had taken up various initiatives to ensure free and fair polls in the state. It had introduced various mobile applications and software so that voters, political parties and candidates can upload the pictures or videos of the any incident of violence. Security of the voters and conducting free and fair elections has been the top priority of the commission. For this, the Chief Election Commissioner and his full bench had issued directives to the top officials in the state to take all necessary measures to ensure peaceful polls. During the meeting with the senior state government officials the commission’s full bench had asked them to check illegal smuggling of arms along the border.

Additional Chief Electoral Officer Dibyendu Sarkar said the EC had submitted a requisition to the Union Home Ministry urging three helicopters for conducting the polls. The helicopters will keep an eye if there is any illegal movement of people. The EC has also decided to install live monitoring cameras in the patrolling cars that will ply throughout the districts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia which will go to poll on April 4. 

The live monitoring cameras will capture photos of booths and its surrounding areas and send them to the commission. Senior EC officials will be able to see the live footages of the sensitive booths. The EC has already sought helicopters from the Ministry of Home Affairs to maintain surveillance in the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) divisions. 

The patrolling cars fitted with the cameras will be manned by the central forces. These vehicles will visit all sensitive polling locations and monitor the situation.