Top brass of govt to hold meet on security details

Kolkata: The top brass of Bengal government will be holding a meeting on Thursday, for a discussion over the security arrangement for the upcoming Panchayat polls.

Sources said that the meeting will be held at the state secretariat Nabanna and senior officers including Chief Secretary Malay De, Home Secretary Atri Bhattacharya, Director General of Police Surajit Kar Purkayastha and Additional Director General (Law and Order) Anuj Sharma, will discuss the issue.

According to experts, the meeting on Thursday is going to be quite crucial, as the outcome of the meeting will be sent to the State Election Commission (SEC) in the form of a report.

The SEC will submit the report in this connection before the Calcutta High Court on May 4, when the Division Bench headed by Justice Subrata Talukdar, will hear the case over the date of the Panchayat election.

It was on Tuesday when the Calcutta High Court directed to consider May 14, which was announced by the SEC as the date for the Panchayat polls, as a tentative one and the final decision in this connection would be taken by the Division Bench.

The Court has directed the SEC to submit its report in connection with the security arrangement, on the day of hearing.

So, in a bid to ensure proper security arrangement for the Panchayat polls, the top brass of the state government will be holding the discussion. According to the experts, issues related to posting of security personnel at polling stations and booths will be discussed in the meeting.

It may be mentioned that there are 58,467 polling booths. More than 19,000 seats have gone uncontested. The senior police officers are now taking all necessary steps, so that no gap remains in making proper arrangements to ensure a peaceful election.

Realisng the need of more armed forces, the state government has already written to five states – Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Odisha and Assam. The matter of the allotment of forces by the states will also come up in the discussion to be held on Thursday.

It has been learnt that there would also be discussion on the matters related to requirement of policemen in a particular area or a polling station.

The number of police personnel to be deployed in each of the booths will also be decided in the meeting and the same will be reported to the SEC.

Meanwhile, allowances of presiding officers and polling officers have been increased by Rs 500 and 400 respectively.