Central force deployed in Bengal, Opposition wants deployment till counting of votes

Kolkata, June 24 (HS): After years of procrastination, the deployment of central forces has finally started for the security of the Panchayat elections to be held in West Bengal on July 8. Central Force jawans have started route marches in many districts of the state.

Initially, 22 companies of central forces have been deployed in Alipurduar, Bankura, Birbhum, Cooch Behar, South Dinajpur, Darjeeling, Hooghly, Howrah, Jalpaiguri, Jhargram, Kalimpong, Malda, Murshidabad, Nadia, North 24 Parganas, and West Burdwan. Deployment has also been done in West Medinipur, East Burdwan, East Medinipur, Purulia, South 24 Parganas, and North Dinajpur.

As per reports until Friday night, central forces are conducting route marches in Jalpaiguri, Arambagh, and Bankura. Central forces were already present in Jhargram. They have started patrolling in the panchayat area of Jhargram. Today, the march of central forces will start in each district of the state.

The Leader of the Opposition, Shubhendu Adhikari, had gone to the five-member State Election Commission on Friday. Coming out of there, he said that after the settlement of the last assembly elections, unprecedented violence was witnessed in Bengal. Learning from that incident, after the end of the panchayat elections, there must be a deployment of central forces until the counting of votes. Along with this, the central forces should be kept in the state for 15 days after the elections are over to handle law and order in the state.

It is noteworthy that the Election Commission and the State Government tried their best to avoid the deployment of central forces for the security of the Panchayat elections. But the Calcutta High Court has strictly directed that at least 82 thousand central force personnel should be deployed. Only after this has it been started.

Hindusthan Samachar/Om Prakash/Mukund/Indrani Sarkar