Polls: EC scraps Bengal web camera vendor, empanels new suppliers
Kolkata: The Election Commission (EC) has scrapped the contract of the agency that supplied web cameras during the 2021 Bengal Assembly and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections after “detecting major irregularities” in the footage, and has empanelled three new vendors to supply the equipment.
Three companies from outside the state have now been selected through fresh tenders to supply the equipment, an official reportedly said.
“The Commission has made it clear that there should be no lapse in the conduct of polling. If violence or disturbance takes place at a booth, the poll will be stopped and re-conducted. Repolling will be held as many times as required,” an EC official said.
“When the recordings from the 2021 Assembly and 2024 Lok Sabha elections were examined, about 30 per cent of the cameras had no recording at all. In another 30 per cent, only about half an hour of footage at the start and end of polling was found, while the rest was blank,” another source in the EC said.
Most cameras were installed at sensitive booths where violence was reported on polling day, sources said.
However, the lack of proper recordings meant the poll panel could not submit footage in court in post-poll violence cases. The issue surfaced during checks ahead of the Kaliganj Assembly by-election, after which the agency’s contract was cancelled and a new vendor selected through a fresh tender process.
Under the new plan, web cameras will be installed inside and outside polling booths, especially in sensitive areas. Two cameras will be placed at each such booth, with observers deciding the number based on law-and-order reports.
Bengal has around 80,719 polling booths, with several thousand auxiliary booths likely to be added. Cameras will also be installed in vehicles used by Static Surveillance Teams (SST) and Flying Squad Teams (FST). Feeds will be monitored from control rooms at district magistrates’ offices, the CEO’s office in Kolkata, and the EC headquarters in New Delhi.
