Kolkata: The Election Commission of India (ECI) will increase the number of general observers to 294 during the upcoming Assembly elections, whereas in the 2021 Assembly elections, the number of general observers stood at 160 in the state.
The Commission is planning a much larger deployment, particularly in sensitive districts. Each Assembly will have one general observer, sources said.
Expenditure observers may increase to about 100, what earlier had stood at 84. The number of Police observers is likely to increase two to three times compared with 37 in the 2021 Assembly polls. The ECI already appointed officials of the West Bengal government as returning officers for all 294 constituencies in the state.
It was learnt that Sub-divisional officers, district-level officers and other senior administrative officers have already been assigned the role of returning officers.
The ECI has already begun deploying Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) across the state ahead of the polls. A significant number of these personnel have already been stationed in various districts, and more contingents are expected to arrive once the election schedule is formally announced. Meanwhile, the chief justice had informed the Supreme Court that 10.16 lakh adjudication cases have been disposed of as on March 9. It was informed that more than 500 judicial officers from Bengal, supplemented by 200 officers from Odisha and Jharkhand, have been deployed and are working day and night.