KOLKATA: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Thursday night informed its decision to deploy 337 companies of central security forces in West Bengal for the upcoming panchayat polls in the state after the State Election Commission (SEC) made a requisition to MHA for 822 companies following a Calcutta High Court order.
Earlier, on Wednesday, the Calcutta High Court had expressed its resentment to the SEC for making requisition of only 22 companies of paramilitary forces, although 825 companies had been deployed in the 2013 polls.
The HC’s division bench of Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam and Justice Uday Kumar directed that the SEC has to deploy a number of central forces, which should not be less than what was done in the 2013 panchayat elections.
Delivering its order, the high court said that the State Election Commission has to, within a timeframe of 24 hours, submit its requisition for enough number of companies of central forces to be deployed through all the districts and that the number of such companies or battalion, which are to be requisitioned, should be not less in number than that of the forces which was requisitioned for the 2013 election.
It also said that the number of companies has to be definitely more than the earlier number keeping in mind that the number of districts has increased and also the total electorate, which would have definitely increased between 2013 and 2023, in the last ten years.
The court also opined that the deployment of such forces moved to the state from other states “to be in place on the date of polling will not yield the desired result”.
The HC said that the State Election Commission has to carry out an independent assessment of the requirement in reference to the requisition of the number of such police forces from other states.
The court also said that, as it has observed earlier, the assessment made by the SEC should be honest and it should be kept in mind that the State Election Commission is under constitutional obligation to ensure holding of free and fair elections and to ensure that the purity of the entire election process is preserved.
The court had also said on Wednesday that the next hearing would be held on Friday.
A series of violent incidents have been witnessed in West Bengal ever since the announcement of the panchayat polls on June 9.
The panchayat elections in West Bengal will be held in a single phase across the state on July 8.
