EC asks Bengal Police to identify sensitive pockets ahead of Assembly polls

THe Election direction has directed the westward Bengal law to discover raw pockets in the state to enable focussed deployment of security forces ahead of the Assembly elections later this year.According to officials familiar with the matter, a total of 480 Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) companies will be deployed in two phases — 240 on March 1 and the remaining on March 10.“Sensitive pocket mapping is critical for calibrated force deployment and voter confidence,” a senior EC official said.He added, “The deployment plan is being finalised in consultation with central observers and coordinated by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).” Central observers have been asked to monitor deployment and submit daily reports to the commission.”In a parallel development related to the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state, the Supreme Court clarified that documents submitted physically to electoral registration officers (EROs) by the February 14 deadline must be accepted even if they were not uploaded online. The court observed that since uploading was itself under dispute, all documents whether electronically uploaded or physically handed over and received must be considered during scrutiny.The top court’s clarification comes after over 115,000 applications in the state remained unuploaded beyond the February 14 deadline, prompting the ECI to issue show-cause notices to a majority of WB’s 294 EROs and 3,059 AEROs, along with seeking explanations from district election officers. The Commission had warned that failure to digitise hearing documents within the prescribed timeline could invite disciplinary proceedings.An ERO posted in Murshidabad — a district among the top in logical discrepancy cases and delayed in online document upload — requesting anonymity, said: “The delay in uploading was not deliberate. A show-cause in election work is not a minor matter. It directly reflects in our confidential service record (CSR). Even if no major penalty follows, the remark itself can delay promotions and affect future postings. We were already dealing with high volumes of scrutiny, including cases involving logical discrepancies and document mismatches.”An AERO posted in Malda said: “Election duty is considered sensitive and high-responsibility work. Any show-cause issued in this context is viewed strictly by the administration. The concern was that even technical delays could be viewed as negligence, impacting our service profile.”“Now that physical documents submitted within the deadline will be accepted, we can focus on resolving logical discrepancy cases and verification issues instead of rushing the uploading merely to meet compliance,” he added.The scrutiny phase is expected to directly influence the number of inclusions or deletions reflected in the supplementary list to be published after the final roll on February 28.