EC strengthens confidence-building measures in Bengal

In a bid to strengthen confidence-building measures in the identified 14,000 vulnerable pockets of poll-bound West Bengal, the Election Commission has instructed sector officers and district magistrate to visit these areas in addition to central forces, an official said here on Sunday.

"We have been indentifying vulnerable pockets across districts and it is a dynamic process. The commission is strengthening its confidence-building measures. In addition to deployment of central forces, sector officers, subdivisional officers and district magistrates are also instructed to visit these areas to interact with the people," said state's additional chief electoral officer Dibyendu Sarkar.

He said officers were specifically instructed to let people know about the control rooms, its numbers and activities to gain confidence of the people. People can also lodge complaints.

Control rooms are expected to be operational for 24 hours from Monday, he said.

"Staffs of the control rooms are also instructed to call people from whom they collected contact numbers to know situations of these pockets and to lodge complains from locals directly. There will be a list of vulnerable areas in each control room," he said.

After scrutiny, 136 candidates are in fray for the 18 assembly constituencies of Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore districts which are going to the hustings on April 4.

Seven other nominations were rejected during scrutiny, Sarkar said.