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This is an archive article published on March 20, 2013
Operational benefits in 3-phase poll
State Election Commissioner Meera Pandey tells Sulagna Sengupta why a three-phase poll with the help of Central forces is imperative.
Written by Sulagna Sengupta
Kolkata | March 20, 2013 02:17 AM IST
3 min readState Election Commissioner Meera Pandey tells Sulagna Sengupta why a three-phase poll with the help of Central forces is imperative.
Why does State Election Commission wants panchayat elections to be conducted in three phases,and why it wants to deploy Central paramilitary forces Panchayat is a three-tier system and as voting has to be conducted through ballot papers and not the EVMs,so so voting time required per person is high. Traditionally in panchayat election,there is high voting percentage in West Bengal. Our main aim is to conduct free,fair and peaceful election. In some areas,earlier we have seen that voting continues till next morning. Moreover,there is little time between two phases. With limited time,it is difficult to shift forces,voting personnel to other districts and arrange polling. The Commission wants three-phase election due to operational advantage. In three-phase poll,the time between the two phases will be more and it will be easy to shift manpower quickly to other districts.
Regarding deployment of Central forces,we have already intimated our plans to the state government. Now,the state government has to take a final call on it.
Have you received any letter from the government regarding their views on holding the panchayat elections?
Till today,we have not received any letter from the state government.
In the meeting with the DMs and SPs of the districts,did you receive any specific complaint of a major political violence?
The Commission has taken information from various sources regarding the law and order situation of every district,and we are going through various complaints and information that we have received. Regarding specific complaint,I wont comment. The Commission is probing all the complaints. DMs and SPs to prepare a vulnerability study map of the polling stations and assess the ground situation of the area.
How far the work for the election has progressed?
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On Monday,the electoral rolls were published. Its scrutiny is going on. We have decided to procure additional 22,000 ballot boxes from Rajasthan. Other works like training of the polling personnel will start within a week.
Your comment on the state governments view of conducting election in two phases with state armed police.
No comment.
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