Kolkata, Sep 2 (PTI) The West Bengal State Election Commission on Wednesday asked six districts to complete all preparations for civic polls before Durga Puja, a senior official said.
The directive signals that the poll body was gearing up to hold elections to several municipalities soon after the festive season.
State Election Commissioner Krishna Gupta issued the direction during a virtual meeting with district magistrates and district municipal election officers of Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri, South 24 Parganas, Howrah and Purba Medinipur.
A senior official of the State Election Commission (SEC) said the districts had been specifically told to finish the groundwork for the polls before the puja holidays so that the commission could move ahead with the electoral process without delay.
“All election-related preparations have to be completed before Durga Puja. We want the districts to be ready in all respects so that the process can move forward immediately after the festive season.
“We have asked the districts to treat the timelines seriously. The objective is to ensure that there is no pendency in the preparatory work once the election schedule is taken up,” the official said.
The commission also sought details from the six districts on the number of police personnel required to conduct free and peaceful municipal elections.
The meeting reviewed preparations relating to delimitation of municipal areas, reservation of seats, EVM management, preparation of final electoral rolls, identification of polling stations and deployment of polling personnel, the official elaborated.
“The districts have been asked to complete voter-list revision, polling-station finalisation and assessment of manpower within the stipulated deadlines,” he said.
The commission was yet to take a final call on whether the EVMs used in the Assembly elections will be deployed for the civic polls or whether new machines will be procured.
“The availability of EVMs will determine, to some extent, whether the elections can be conducted on a single day or whether multiple phases will be required. No final decision has been taken on this yet,” the official said.
The pending civic elections include those to five municipal corporations — Kolkata, Howrah, Bidhannagar, Durgapur and Siliguri.
Several municipalities in North Bengal and the hills are also awaiting elections, including Kurseong, Mirik, Kalimpong, Raiganj, Buniadpur and Dhupguri. Elections are also pending in Bally, Domkal, Pujali, Panskura, Haldia, Coopers Camp in Nadia and Nalhati.
The Commission has set tentative deadlines for other stages of the electoral process.
The draft reservation list is likely to be published around the middle of September, while the final list is targeted to be completed by the last week of October after considering objections.
The first-level checking of EVMs, infrastructure for secure strong rooms and the deployment blueprint for security personnel were also reviewed at the meeting. PTI SCH NSD
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