Bengal panchayat polls: Uncertainty over security continues

HC likely to pass fresh order tomorrow

Even as the scheduled dates of the panchayat elections in West Bengal are fast approaching, the uncertainty over security arrangement continues.

Due to the urgency of the matter, the Division Bench of Calcutta High court, comprising Chief Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Joymalyo Bagchi, heard the case twice during the day and made all efforts to settle the matter by today itself.

The Centre's counsel today informed the court that it could not provide security forces within such a short span of time, especially given the huge deployment of forces in Uttarakhand for rescue work. He added that in normal circumstances, the Centre provides security personnel in local elections.

After an hour-long hearing in the matter starting at 10 am, the court directed the state government and the State Election Commission (SEC) to discuss and explore the possibility of a five-phase election to cut down the requirement of security arrangement in each phase. The counsels of both state government and SEC were asked to revert to the court with the outcome of the discussion at 3 pm.

Following this, the state's chief secretary and home secretary held meetings with SEC officials, but later informed the court that there was no consensus.

The SEC counsel told the court it could not take the risk of conducting polls in the absence of adequate security arrangement, because 13 people have already lost their lives in the political violence over the past month alone.

The state government counsel, on the other hand, argued that it had written to the Centre asking for central forces, but could not get the same. As an alternative, the state proposed a four-phased election, following which the court sought details of required security arrangement for the same.During the hearing in the afternoon, Chief Justice Arun Mishra even handed over a calculator to SEC's counsel Samaraditya Pal to do the calculation on the spot, so that the court could pass an order in this respect by today itself. However, later on, the Bench asked the SEC counsel to revert by tomorrow 10 am. The court is likely to pass an order tomorrow.

According to an earlier order of the Calcutta High court on May 14, the three-phase Panchayat elections in the state are to be held on July 2, 6 and 9.

In the same order, the court had also provided detailed guidelines for security arrangement. According to which, state needed about 1,40,000 personnel for the polls.

However, the state government could provide only 60,000 security personnel and sought the rest from the Centre.