Over 10,000 vulnerable hamlets in Bengal: Poll panel

The Election Commission here has identified over 10,000 "vulnerable hamlets" in the 42 parliamentary constituencies of West Bengal, an official said Friday.

According to assistant chief electoral officer Amitjyoti Bhattacharji, as many as 10, 102 hamlets have been identified as vulnerable so far since the initiation of vulnerability tracking exercise post the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections.

"In these vulnerable hamlets, we have identified 7,335 troublemakers who are capable of fomenting trouble through threats or intimidation. Out of these, preventive action has been initiated against 5,980," he said.

He said as much as 24.7 kg of explosives, 882 cartridges, and 2,861 bombs have been seized in the state so far.

"So far in the last 12 days, the number of arms licence deposited stand at 11,701 while 1826 have been impounded and 145 cancelled," Amit Roy Chaudhury, officer on special duty and ex-officio joint secretary, told reporters here.

As many as 25,795 non-bailable warrants have been executed while 37,290 are pending, he said, while 29, 567 are under the bind-down provision of Code of Criminal Procedure.

The excise department has seized 312 litres of Sikkim beer from Kalimpong in Darjeeling district Friday, he said.