Kolkata, April 16 (IANS) The Election Commission of India (ECI) has directed the erection of temporary bamboo fencing around unenclosed polling stations — those polling stations without proper boundary walls — to prevent the entry of unauthorised persons.

An insider from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal said that in the course of investigation the Commission representatives have identified several polling stations at unenclosed school buildings without proper boundary walls making it easy for unauthorised persons to access the inside of the polling stations easily avoiding the surveillance of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel present there.

“Some of the unenclosed polling stations located in the remote forested areas have thick forests or bushes around them, making these stations more vulnerable from a security angle. So, in view of these, the Commission has decided that bamboo fencing would be erected around such unenclosed polling stations,” said the CEO’s office insider.

Additional security personnel will be deputed for such polling stations to prevent any unauthorised person from entering the polling station premises after climbing up the bamboo fencing.

The Commission had, this time, also directed that the booth-level officers (BLOs) will have to personally reach the doorsteps of the voters to distribute the voting-slips to the voters just as they distributed the enumeration forms during the enumeration phase of the just concluded Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in the state.

The Commission had issued strict warnings to the BLOs that under no circumstances should they leave the task of distributing the voting slips to representatives of any political party for distribution.

Before the first phase of the two-phase West Bengal Assembly elections on April 23, the CEO had already issued strict guidelines to sector officers, presiding officers, and other polling officials on maintaining neutrality during the poll process.

Instructions have been given to these categories of polling officers not to seek or accept any assistance from representatives of any polling party, including polling agents, during the polling process.​

The election officers have also been advised not to accept any food, water, or other items offered to them by any representative of any political party. Instead, the polling officers have been advised to rely solely on the arrangements made for them by the administration, as per the directions of the ECI.​

The two-phase polling in West Bengal this time will be on April 23 and April 29. The results will be declared on May 4.

–IANS

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