Poll preparedness: 12 companies of central forces reach Bengal, 30 more to arrive today

KOLKATA: Twelve companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) reached the state on Saturday. Another 30 companies are likely to reach the state on Sunday.

The development comes a day after the Union Ministry of Home Affairs decided to deploy 125 companies of central forces across the state by the end of this month. The Commission has asked the state government and the state CEO office to send a daily report of the movement of the central forces separately.

A senior EC official said two companies of the central forces reached Durgapur by train and another got down at Burdwan and five companies reached Dankuni in Howrah. Another four companies reached the Kolkata railway station by train.

"The idea to deploy central forces now is to ensure that there is no problem when campaigning for the elections starts. This deployment is also to build the confidence of the voters. Stress will be on area domination by the forces, especially in the sensitive zones," an official from the Commission said.

"Twelve companies of central forces have already reached the state and they have been sent to 12 places. The places include East and West Midnapore, Howrah police Commissionerate and Howrah rural, Bidhannagar, Diamond Harbour, Durgapur, Barrackpore, Hooghly, Burdwan town, East Burdwan and Birbhum. The forces will come in phases but the whole process will be completed by the end of February," another official at the CEO office said.

According to an official, the co-ordination and monitoring will be done by a team comprising CEO Ariz Aftab, ADG (Law and Order) Jawed Shamim, who is the nodal officer of the state police and DIG (BSF) nodal officer for the central forces. All of them have been asked to send separate reports to the Commission.

The security personnel will send daily reports to the Chief Electoral Officer by 8 pm.

The forces were brought in from Jammu and Kashmir. At the railway stations, senior officers of the CRPF and the West Bengal Police were present to welcome the forces.

Sixty companies of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), 30 companies of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and five companies each of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) will reach the state in the next few days, the officials said.

Apart from route march, the central forces will also be patrolling in the night, he added.