Poll panel team visits Bengal’s trouble spots
By IANSWednesday, January 19, 2011
KOLKATA - A high-level team of Election Commission observers Wednesday toured political trouble spots in West Bengal, interacting with villagers and officials while assessing the law and order situation in the poll-bound state.
On the third day of their trip to the state, the six observers divided themselves in groups of two and visited violence-scarred Arambagh in Hoogly district, Raina in Burdwan district and Khejuri in East Midnapore district.
Bihar’s Chief Electoral Officer Sudhir Kumar Rakesh and National Crime Record Bureau’s deputy director Zaki Ahmad went to Khejuri near Nandigram and held parleys with District Magistrate Archana and Superintendent of Police Ashok Biswas.
The duo went to interior areas, asking people whether they could vote in the previous elections and if they were victims of political atrocities.
Another visiting group comprising Jharkhand Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) D.K. Pandey and Orissa Deputy Inspector General (Special Auxiliary Police) P.S. Ranpise first went to Raina, where two people were killed in police firing.
They then proceeded to Arambagh, which has witnessed recurring clashes between the ruling Marxist and the main opposition Trinamool Congress activists.
There was tension in Arambagh when two CPI-M leaders reached the Zilla Parishad bungalow to meet the observers but faced an angry demonstration from Trinamool Congress activists who later met the officials.
The third group comprising National Crime Record Bureau’s Joint Director P.R.K. Naidu and Andhra Pradesh’s Deputy Inspector General of Police (Intelligence Bureau) B. Shivadhar Reddy went to Bankura district.
