The West Bengal Government is sending a letter to the State Election Commission today containing all information regarding security arrangement on panchayat election.
"We are sending a letter to the SEC today giving details regarding security arrangement for the three-phased panchayat election in the state on July 2, 6 and 9," state Home Secretary Basudeb Banerjee said here today.
The letter would also have details regarding deployment pattern of forces available, besides security arrangement during filing of nominations for contesting the poll, he said.
He, however, declined to divulge details of the letter, saying "it is written to the SEC in compliance to its query".
However, he said, that the state government had written to the governments of Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa asking for state armed force for election duty here."We have given details in the letter to the SEC", he said.
A day after the SEC issued notification for the first of the 3-phase panchayat poll in the state after a 12-day wait for govt to furnish details about forces, state Governor M K Narayanan today held a high-level meeting with top government officials at Raj Bhavan, presumably to discuss poll preparedness.
State chief secretary Sanjay Mitra, home secretary Basudev Banerjee and ADG (law and order) Banibrata Basu were, among others, present at the meeting which lasted over an hour. Later, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee held a meeting with the Chief Secretary and Home secretary on the issue.
State Election Commissioner Mira Pandey has already met the Governor to discuss details of election preparedness and the problems centring force deployment in sensitive areas.
The SEC and the Trinamool Congress government had major disagreement over deployment of security forces during polling and the timing of the election.
The matter ultimately went to the Calcutta High Court with the poll panel praying for judicial intervention in the dispute.
