Tight security cover for Malda by-poll

Statesman News Service

MALDA, Sept. 7: The state’s chief secretary, Mr AK Deb, today held a meeting with officials of the Malda district administration, including the DM and the SP, to review law and order situation ahead of the Lok Sabha bypoll here. The Malda DM, Mr Chittaranjan Das, said that the Election Commission would send 22 companies of Central paramilitary forces to conduct the bypoll here. “The CPMF personnel will cover 40 per cent of the total polling stations. The state police will man the rest of the polling stations, who are scheduled to arrive from North Doinajpur, South Dinajpur and Murshidabad districts,” Mr Das said. “The local police will not be deployed in the polling stations following the EC’s guideline. They will patrol on roads and will maintain law and order outside the polling stations. The CPMF personnel will be posted mainly in the ‘sensitive’ booths. All the polling stations have been identified as ‘sensitive’,” said Mr Das . Similarly, over 5,000 polling personnel will come from outside the district. Over 30 police officials have been transferred from Malda, following the EC’s instruction, the DM said. The Union I&B and parliamentary affairs minister, Mr Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, had expressed his unhappiness yesterday over the deployment of state police for the bypoll here.