SEC holds meeting with home secretary, DGP

The West Bengal State Election Comission today held a meeting to discuss the security arrangements for the May 14 panchayat polls in the state.

State Home Secretary Atri Bhattacharya, Director General of Police Surajit Kar Purakayastha, ADG (law and order) Anuj Sharma met State Election Commissioner A K Singh in the evening.

"We have discussed the security arrangements for the May 14 polls," an SEC official said.

Putting to rest uncertainties, the SEC yesterday said that panchayat poll in West Bengal will be held on May 14 as was announced earlier. The counting will take place on May 17 and repolling, if any, will be held the day before, the SEC had said.

Around 1,500 security personnel from Assam, Odisha, Sikkim and Andhra Pradesh will be arriving in West Bengal for the panchayat elections scheduled on Monday.

In addition to around 46,000 personnel of the state police and 12,000 of the Kolkata police, the state government would use close to 2,000 security personnel from the departments of excise, prison and forest in manning the booths during voting for the three-tier panchayat bodies, a state government official said.