All necessary security measures will be in place for voters, poll personnel, assures CEO

Kolkata: The Election Commission said on Monday that there will be deployment of armed forces at all the booths and adequate security measures would be taken for the voters and voting personnel in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Ariz Aftab said on Monday that they are concerned over the security issues of polling personnel. In some places, the polling personnel have threatened to boycott the polls if adequate security measures are not taken.

Meanwhile, the office of the District Election Officer in North Kolkata launched the e-portal Pollstar, where the voters and voting personnel would be given information related to the poll procedure. Voters will be trained through 7 modules which have been uploaded in the portal.

It may be mentioned here that a number of polling personnel in North Bengal have recently written to the CEO, seeking immediate deployment of Central Forces in all the polling stations. They have also threatened to pull out from their election duties, unless adequate forces are deployed to man all the polling stations of these districts.

While answering the questions of media, Aftab said armed police personnel from both the Centre and the state police force will be deployed at the polling stations. Senior officials of the CEO's office assured all the election employees that all preemptive measures would be taken to conduct free and fair elections.

Sources in the CEO's office said that the commission is thinking of deploying 35 to 45 companies of Central Force in the state. At present, 36 companies of Central Forces are available for the polls in the two districts of Alipurduar and Cooch Behar. Around 10 companies of Central Forces would be brought to Jharkhand.

Meanwhile, the state government has released 29 companies of Central Forces which were deployed in Jangalmahal. Out of the 29 companies, 11 will be deployed in Alipurduar and 18 in Cooch Behar, sources in the CEO's office said.

9,000 state armed police personnel will be deployed in the 3,844 polling booths, of which 2,010 are in Cooch Behar and 1,834 in Alipurduar. The decision about force deployment was finalised following a meeting between CEO Ariz Aftab and ADG (law and order) Siddh Nath Gupta recently.