Murshidabad to get highest deployment of Central Forces
Kolkata: The Election Commission has decided to deploy the maximum companies of Central Forces in Murshidabad district during the third phase of polls on April 23.
Five Lok Sabha constituencies in the state are going for polls on the day, among which Murshidabad and Jangipur are two constituencies under Murshidabad district. The other three constituencies going for elections are Malda North, Malda South and Balurghat.
177 companies of Central Forces, which is more than half of the 324 that will be available for the third phase, will be used mainly as static forces in 3,669 booths spread over 2,523 polling premises of Jangipur and Murshidabad.
Malda, which has two constituencies in the fray for the third phase, will have 94 companies while South Dinajpur will have a deployment of 44 companies of Central Forces.
According to the data of the Commission, Murshidabad has 1,907 booths spread over 1,375 polling premises, whereas Jangipur has 1,762 booths spread over 1,148 polling premises.
"We have made a deployment plan where more than 92 percent of the booths in these two constituencies will be covered by the Central Forces. The mobile patrolling, QRT and HRFS team will be managed jointly by the state armed forces and Central Forces. We want maximum presence of Central Forces in the booths," a senior Election Commission official said.
"94 companies of Central Forces will be deployed to man 3,329 booths spread over 2,426 premises in Malda district. The Malda North parliamentary constituency has 1,713 booths spread over 1,320 polling premises, while Malda South has 1,616 polling booths spread over 1,106 polling premises. This deployment will cover 91 percent of the polling premises in the entire Malda district," an EC official said.
Balurghat in South Dinajpur will have 44 companies of Central Forces to man 1,530 polling booths spread over 1,345 polling premises. The deployment will cover more than 80 percent of the polling stations.
The leftover force of 9 companies will be sent for confidence building in the fourth phase on April 29, when the 8 parliamentary constituencies of Behrampore, Krishnanagar, Ranaghat, Burdwan (East), Burdwan-Durgapur, Bolpur, Asansol and Birbhum will be going to polls.
"We have done a vulnerability mapping of all the constituencies independently and this mapping is being coordinated with sensitivity mapping done by the district administration and the state Home department. The daily reports of vulnerability mapping sent by the police observers, the District Electoral Officer (DEO) and SP of the district are also being taken into consideration, before preparing the ultimate security layout plan," said an EC official.
