Govt may agree to central forces for panchayat polls

KOLKATA: The conduct of panchayat polls has never been so complex or so riddled with uncertainties as now. The notification for the first phase is out but the government and the state election commission are yet to sort out the impasse over security forces, raising the possibility of deployment of central forces.
Home secretary Basudeb Banerjee, in his letter to the State Election Commission, hinted that the government may ask for paramilitary forces due to the shortage of state police.As of Tuesday, the government failed to meet the huge shortfall of armed forces despite its commitment to free and fair polls. Even the governor could not get the two sides to agree but it emerged later in the night that the government may be willing to ask for central forces.
"We are trying our best to mobilize forces from other states. In case the state can't achieve the target, we'll move high court for its directive," said ADG (law and order) Banibrata Basu said earlier in the day. The SEC had indicated it could move court if the government failed to meet the shortfall in forces.
The process of filing nominations for the first phase starts on Wednesday. The state has provided just 3,500 armed police to man the BDO and SDO offices across nine districts against the requirement of 15,000 cops. With the poll panel taking over the reins of law and order from Monday - the day it notified the polls - the SEC is now responsible for averting violence during nomination with such a meagre force.
SEC officials refuse to be seen as comprising with the security issue that has been its key point of persuasion with the state government for the last eight months. "We are not going to compromise on security. We have been flexible on all other points to hold the elections, as the high court ordered. If need be, we will seek the court's directive," an SEC official said.
Bengal awaits reply from other states
A look at the state's response on Tuesday shows how difficult it is to arrive at a golden mean. The government has admitted to a shortfall of 70,000 forces for the first phase while the requirement for the remaining phases is 1.15 lakh armed personnel.
The government has written to seven states, most recently Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, but is yet to get a response. Bengal cannot bank on Chhattisgarh , Jharkhand, Bihar, Assam and Odisha any more after the Maoist attack in Chhattisgarh. The home secretary has mentioned in Tuesday's letter that it won't be possible to shift the 26,000 armed forces with Kolkata Police to the districts two days before the polls.
The state's response came after two rounds of discussion. The first was at Raj Bhavan where governor M K Narayanan took stock of the availability of forces and their deployment with chief secretary Sanjay Mitra, home secretary Basudeb Banerjee , panchayat secretary Sourav Das and ADG (law and order) Banibrata Basu. This was followed by discussions at Writers' Buildings but the stalemate was unresolved.
There is every possibility of the logjam continuing for some more days if the SEC refuses to compromise on the state's plea to the high court to relax its poll management guidelines so that the state can manage with fewer forces from outside. SEC sources indicated that the poll panel will not yield on this issue and, in fact, will seek the court's directive to bring in central forces.