State proposes four phases,court to decide today

The panchayat elections are at present scheduled to be held in three phases — on July 2,July 6 and July 9.

Following the proposal of the Division Bench of Chief Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Joymalya Bagchi,the state election commission (SEC) counsel submitted to the High Court that it had no objection to the state’s proposal to increase the phases if it could guarantee deployment of adequate security forces. The polls cannot be held otherwise,he added.

Earlier,a counsel of the central government apprised the court that it would not be possible to provide central forces from outside and that the state government could utilise the 42 companies of the central forces deployed in the Jungalmahal for the election purpose.

The Division Bench suggested that if the first phase of polling,to be held in nine districts on July 2,is divided into two more phases,the shortfall of the security forces could be resolved.

During the hearing,it was revealed that a total of 1,42,000 security forces are required in the first phase. The Chief Justice,after going through the affidavit,said shortfall is of 76,000 and asked the state how it will cope with it.

The High Court advised the state to hold the polls on July 2,4,6,8 and 9 and asked the government and the SEC to discuss this and come up with their stand later in the day.

Following discussions between the Chief Secretary,Home Secretary and the Director General of Police and State Election Commissioner,the matter was taken up in the court again.

Government pleader Ashok Banerjee handed over a fresh proposal that sought to hold the polls in four phases. He also submitted the fresh schedule of the districts where polls are to be held on July 2. According to the state’s fresh proposal,the poll would be held in Purulia,Bankura,West Midnapore and East Midnapore in the first phase on July 2.

In the second phase on July 4,the poll would be held in Burdwan,Howrah,Hoogly,South 24-Parganas and North 24-Parganas. The schedules of districts for the third and four phases would follow the schedule of second and third phase according to the earlier notifications.

The Division Bench wanted to know from the SEC counsel about the requirement of security forces in the first and second phases according to the new schedule.

SEC counsel Samarditya Pal said about 49,000 security forces would be required in the first phase to hold the polls in the four districts and 1.1 lakh forces would have to be arranged to cover the five districts in the second phase.

The Division Bench wanted to know from the Advocate General about the availability of the security forces from the state’s own resources and the shortfall of forces for each phase. It asked the Advocate General to submit the details tomorrow.