Election Commission team starts arriving in Bengal

KOLKATA - The six-member Election Commission team, looking to assess the law and order situation following an upsurge of violence in West Bengal, where assembly polls are due in May, started arriving in the state Sunday.

Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar Sudhir Kumar Rakesh, who will lead the high-level team, reached here Sunday afternoon followed by Additional Director General of Jharkhand Police (Law and Order) D.K. Pandey.

The other members of the team are National Crime Record Bureau’s Joint Director P.R.K. Naidu and Deputy Director Zaki Ahmad, Deputy Inspector General (Intelligence Bureau) Andhra Pradesh B. Shivadhar Reddy and Deputy Inspector General of special auxiliary police of Orissa P.S. Ranpise.

According to officials of the state home department, the team of special observers will hold a video conference with the district magistrates and superintendents of police of all the 19 districts, after which they will visit the trouble-torn areas of the state to make a first-hand assessment of the situation.

The team members, dividing themselves in three groups, will visit different districts to make an on-the-spot assessment and submit a report to the commission on their return.

The team will conduct a “knowledge attitude and behavioral” survey among the people of trouble torn districts like Darjeeling, South 24 Parganas, Birbhum, Burdwan, East Midnapore and Hooghly, where it is feared that there might be violent clashes during the elections.

The team will conduct the same survey in Maoist-affected districts like Bankura, West Midnapore and Purulia.