West Bengal polls: 12 CAPF companies reach state, 30 more to arrive on Sunday

At least 12 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) reached West Bengal on Saturday morning as the state prepares for its assembly polls due in April-May, an Election Commission official said. Another 30 companies of the CAPF are likely to arrive on Sunday, he told PTI. The EC has decided to deploy 125 companies of central forces in West Bengal by 25 February for the assembly election. Two companies of the central forces reached Durgapur by train, one company at Bardhaman station and five companies Dankuni, he said. Another four companies reached the Kolkata railway station by train. “The forces were brought in from Jammu and Kashmir. They will be heading to areas where they have been assigned to,” the EC official said. One company each will be sent to Purba and Paschim Medinipur, Hooghly, Paschim and Purba Bardhaman and Birbhum districts, Bidhannagar, Barrackpore, Diamond Harbour, Durgapur and Howrah poice commissionerate and Howrah rural areas, he said. Sixty companies of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), 30 companies of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and five companies each of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) will reach the state in the next few days, he said. “The idea behind deploying central forces now is to ensure that there is no problem when campaigning for the election starts. It is being done also to build confidence in the voters. Stress will be on area domination by the forces, especially in the sensitive zones,” the official said. Coordination and monitoring of the central forces will be done by a team comprising of Chief Electoral Officer Ariz Aftab, Additional Director General (Law and Order) Jawed Shamim, nodal officer of the state police and DIG(BSF) nodal officer for the CAPF. The CEO has been asked to keep in touch with the forces directly and inform the EC whenever the CAPF face any problem in discharging its duties, the official added. Apart from route march, the central forces will also be patrolling in the night, he said adding the security personnel will send daily reports to the CEO by 8 pm.