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Poll panel asks West Bengal police to take action against trouble-mongers

KOLKATA: The Election Commission has set a tall target for the state police. Chief electoral officer in West Bengal has identified more than 18,000 probable troublemongers after deputy election commissioner Sudeep Jain asked all the police and administrative officials to identify all such people and make preventive arrests.

This apparently means that in the next one month, police will have to take action against 610 people per day.

After the visit of Jain, CEO Ariz Aftab instructed ADG (law and order) Siddhinath Gupta to make a list of troublemongers and submit it to the CEO within a week. In view of the complaints of the deteriorating law and order situation, the poll panel wants to keep tabs on the miscreants who might create trouble. The list submitted to the CEO’s office with detailed inputs from the districts shows that18,399 people might be responsible for creating trouble during the election. According to election commission data in 2016 assembly polls, the figure was 16,428 — nearly 2,000 less than the present figure. In the 2014 Lok Sabha it was12,904.

The report also says that South 24 Parganas top the list, where 2,213 possible trouble-makers have been identified. The district is followed by Burdwan, with 2,009 people; Murshidabad and Birbhum with 1,726 people each. Kolkata, where 752 people have been identified as trouble-mongers , is eighth among the districts. Interestingly, Howrah Police commissionerate, Jhargram police district and South Dinajpur with 73 people, 83 people and 112 people respectively are the most peaceful zones so far as vulnerability profile is concerned.

“There has been a substantial increase in the number of people who have been identified as the probable source of trouble. The figure is nearly 2,000 more than that during the last assembly election and nearly 5,000 more than the last Lok Sabha poll figure. Moreover, it should be noticed that this is not the final list. This is based on the present situation. The identification process is on and we’ve seen many people entering the state form bordering states during elections. This will also increase the number,” a senior election commission official said.

The EC isn’t taking chances. Considering the requirement from the CEO’s office, the commission may send an additional 40 companies of central forces, particularly for the bordering districts, including Jhargram, West Mindapore, Nadia, Murshidabad, South 24 parganas, North 24 parganas, Cooch Behar and Darjeeling. The commission has already sent10 companies of force for confidence building in different districts.

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