200 companies of central forces arrive in Bengal for polls

Kolkata: Around 200 companies of central forces have arrived in West Bengal ahead of assembly polls and are being engaged in extensive confidence building measures in all districts, an Election Commission official said here on Monday.

“Adequate numbers of central forces are present in each district. We are getting reports each day from the districts on their activities. We are completely alert on security arrangements,” additional chief electoral officer Dibyendu Sarkar told the media here.

Maintaining “there is no lapse in security arrangements”, he said the presence of central forces will continue till results are declared.

On Tuesday the Election Commission’s deputy election commissioner S. Saxena will review security arrangements with the district electoral officers (DEO), the additional director general, law and order, the superintendents of police, the police commissioner and state team via a video conference, Sarkar said.

Later in the day, an all-party meet will be held with EC officials here on expenditure monitoring.

Sarkar said DEOs and SPs have been instructed to “take action” on non-bailable warrants that could affect the election process.

Quizzed on any specific complaints against any political leader, he replied: “We have not received any written complaints against any political personality so far.”

Complaints by parties have been logged in via the newly-introduced Samadhan app, he said.

—IANS