GTA Poll: Arms for most on hill poll duty

According to the break-up, over 2,000 armed constables will be accompanying around 950 officers of sub-inspector and assistant sub-inspector ranks in Darjeeling alone

Kinsuk Basu   |   TT  |  Calcutta   |   19.06.22  : The Bengal government has planned an intense security bandobast for the June 26 elections to the Gorkha Territorial Administration (GTA) and the Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad with all officers and the majority of constables accompanying them carrying arms.

In a message to the superintendents of police of Darjeeling and Kalimpong and the Siliguri police commissionerate, the home department has drawn up a detailed deployment plan with specific instructions that spell out how many constables, home guards, women constables and members of the National Volunteer Force would be carrying arms.

The rest will carry batons and gas shells while performing law-and-order duties during the polls, said a source.

“Such heavy deployment for GTA and Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad polls is unprecedented.… It’s clear that the government doesn’t want to take chances,” said a source in the home department.

According to the break-up, over 2,000 armed constables will be accompanying around 950 officers of sub-inspector and assistant sub-inspector ranks in Darjeeling alone. Close to 700 constables and nearly 250 officers will be deployed in Kalimpong.

For the Mahakuma Parishad polls, over 200 armed police constables will be deployed.

“All intelligence inputs, along with an assessment of the state of restlessness brewing across the country, have been taken into consideration while drawing up the deployment schedule,” a home department official said. “We have considered all the 45 constituencies under the GTA to be sensitive.”

The BJP is opposing the GTA polls and the GNLF is against the idea of the GTA.

In the Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad area, the recent arrests of some KLO militants, coupled with the strategic location of the rural area that shares borders with Bangladesh, Nepal and Bihar, have necessitated the security arrangements, sources said.