Bengal's Junglemahal to get satellite phone service for polls

The remote areas in Junglemahal - the forested stretches of West Bengal's Bankura, Purulia and West Midnapore districts - will get satellite phone terminals for the first time in Lok Sabha elections, an Election Commission official said Wednesday.

Called the 'Digital Satellite Phone Terminal', as many as ten satellite phone service hubs will be set up as part of this Information Technology (IT) intervention in the Junglemahal, thereby providing connectivity to-and-from the Commission office in Kolkata and the officials in the forested areas.

"As part of this IT intervention, 10 satellite phone terminals will be set up in shadow zones (areas out of mobile network coverage). This is for the first time that satellite phones are being used there," chief electoral officer Sunil Gupta told reporters here.

The Lok Sabha constituencies in Junglemahal will go the hustings May 7.

This initiative is in addition to the police and forest department's wireless connections that are normally deployed.

Meanwhile, both state and central security forces have arrived for the first phase of the polls beginning April 17.

Polling for four seats -- Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and Cooch Behar -- in the northern part of the state would be held on that date.