SEC proposes Rs 450 cr for rural polls

Kolkata: The State Election Commission (SEC) has proposed a corpus of Rs 450 crore to the West Bengal government as an allotment for the forthcoming Panchayat polls in the state scheduled to take place on July 8.

Sources added that around Rs 360 crore was spent to conduct the last Panchayat elections but this year the cost will further go up. The number of Gram Panchayat seats and number of booths have increased this year which will cost more money, election commission officials say.

It was learnt that the state had carried out an expense of Rs 270 crore to hold civic bodies’ elections in 2022.

The SEC has already given necessary directives to the districts. The concerned districts will take the final decision about the expenses on the basis of their local issues, geographic locations. It is believed that as the election is going to be held during the rainy season there is always a possibility of rainfall.

The district election officials may feel the need of putting an umbrella into the election kit box given to election personnel who go to the booths to conduct the polls.

The SEC had procured some ballot boxes and other election related equipment last year. Otherwise, the cost of conducting elections would have gone up further.

According to SEC sources, during last Panchayat elections, there were around 48,650 seats in Gram Panchayats but this year, the number has gone up to 63,229 after delimitation. Now, one Gram Panchayat has been allotted against 900 voters. The SEC will install CCTV for conducting videography which will push the election costs up further.

Meanwhile, in another development, the Supreme Court agreed to hear on Tuesday a plea challenging an order of the Calcutta High Court directing the State Election Commission (SEC) to requisition and deploy Central forces across Bengal for the rural elections.

The matter was mentioned on Monday before a vacation bench of Justices Surya Kant and M M Sundresh by senior advocate Meenakshi Arora who sought an urgent hearing. The appeal against the order was filed on Friday last but was not taken up.