12 CAPF units reach Bengal, another 30 to arrive today

Kolkata: Twelve companies of central paramilitary forces reached Kolkata, Dankuni and Durgapur on Saturday while another 30 are scheduled to reach the state on Sunday. The ministry of home affairs has decided to send 125 companies of central armed police forces (

CAPF

) to

Bengal

for maintaining law and order in the run-up to the assembly

polls

.

The Election Commission has asked the state government, the chief electoral officer (CEO) and CAPF to send daily reports on the movement of central forces so that they can be effectively used to control pre-poll violence in the state. Two companies of CAPF reached Durgapur by train, one got down at Burdwan, five reached Dankuni and another four arrived at Kolkata railway station in Chitpore, a state election official said.

“We have sent available forces to 12 areas — East and West Midnapore, Howrah police commissionerate and Howrah rural, Bidhannagar, Diamond Harbour, Durgapur, Barrackpore, Hooghly, East and West Burdwan and Birbhum. Another 30 companies are likely to come to the state on Sunday. The forces will come in phases till deployment is complete by the end of February,” a source at the CEO office said.

The EC, this time, will keep a watch on the movement of forces and their utilisation following allegations from opposition parties that central forces placed under the guidance of the state police were not allowed to work. “The coordination and monitoring will be done by a team comprising CEO Ariz Aftab, ADG (law and order) Jawed Shamim who is nodal officer of the state police and the DIG (BSF) who is nodal officer for CAPF. All have to send a report to the commission separately,” the official said.

The report must highlight issues such as demarcation of areas, advantages and disadvantages of these areas and their coordination with the state police force. “CEO Aftab has been asked to keep in touch with the forces directly and inform the commission whenever they face any problem in discharging their duties,” the official added.

Sources in the EC said there were approximately 18,000 vulnerable hamlets in the state and more than 50% booths were considered either sensitive or highly sensitive. “Districts like North and South 24 Parganas, Jhargram, Purulia, Murshidabad and Hooghly are considered to be highly sensitive and the deployment of forces has been made keeping all these factors in mind,” another official said.