Non-bailable warrants and central forces on EC radar

Kolkata: The Election Commission on Thursday gave

Bengal

Police a January-end deadline to execute around 38,000 pending non-bailable warrants as the issue of central forces dominated the poll panel’s day-long meeting with senior police officers, political parties, district magistrates and police superintendents.

Refusing to accept the state’s plea that Covid restrictions had led to a huge pendency list of NBWs, the EC indicated that it knew how to get work done. The panel also met senior BSF and CRPF officers to gauge the existing deployment of central forces in Bengal.

According to sources, the EC is considering a scale-up of central forces’ deployment. The Covid-induced measures have led to an increase of poll booths in Bengal from 77,247 to 1,01,733. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, around 650 companies of central forces were deployed.

The EC had a detailed meeting with ADG (law and order) Gyanwant Singh first. Sources said Singh informed the EC that police have executed around 12,000 NBWs in the past four days alone. He reportedly also said that Covid-induced safety measures and large-scale devastation due to Cyclone Amphan had led to NBW pendency. Sources said Singh also submitted a list of potential troublemakers now in prison.

The issue of central forces also dominated the EC’s discussion with parties. Trinamool Congress secretary-general Partha Chatterjee alleged that BSF officers were threatening villagers living in the bordering areas in the name of a particular political party. “Today, we met ECI officials and briefed them about shocking reports of how BSF jawans are threatening villagers in the border areas. We came to know that they are threatening villagers claiming that the state government can’t do anything as border areas will be manned by them,” Chatterjee said after the meeting. He also requested the ECI to conduct ‘mock polls’.

BSF refuted the claims, saying they were “without any basis and far from any truth”. In a statement, BSF said: “BSF is a professional Border Guarding Force which has, in the past, and in the present, guarded our international borders with total sincerity and dedication. We have actively checked on illegal infiltration and smuggling and brought to book criminals involved in such activities.”

State BJP president Dilip Ghosh, reminding of the violence in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, said, “We told the ECI to take all required steps to ensure peaceful elections in Bengal. We demanded that paramilitary forces should be deployed to man the booths while the state police should be deployed outside the booth campus.” He also asked the ECI to verify the exceptional increase of voters in certain areas.