1,500 vehicles for live monitoring of sensitive areas in Bengal

As many as 1,500 vehicles fitted with cameras for transmitting live images will patrol the area surrounding sensitive booths in West Bengal, an Election Commission official said Tuesday.

This move is a first for Lok Sabha elections.

As per the IT intervention christened "Live Monitoring of Sensitive Areas", roving cameras-mounted vans ferrying security personnel will keep a strict vigil for trouble makers and transmit the feed to the Commission offices in Kolkata as well as Delhi and to the district election offices.

They will also record images of movements outside the sensitive poll booths.

"This will be a great deterrent effect on potential troublemakers when they see a vehicle moving around, carrying security personnel and monitoring the situation constantly," assistant chief electoral officer Amitjyoti Bhattacharya told reporters here.

This initiative is in addition to the measure of videography and webcasting of polling process in all poll booths.

Though he refrained from divulging the areas under the scanner, chief electoral officer Sunil Gupta had said earlier the problem areas are mainly located in the Maoist-affected belt called Junglemahal comprising the forested stretches of the three western districts - Bankura, Purulia and West Midnapore.

Polls in these areas are scheduled for May 7.