With 125 companies of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) scheduled to reach the state by February 25, at least 12 of them arrived on Saturday. They will be deployed for area domination and route marches.
Meanwhile, a BJP delegation met Election Commission officials in Kolkata, demanding an all-party meeting, proper deployment of the central forces and no poll duty for contractual civic volunteers.
Five CAPF companies arrived at Dankuni in Howrah by train, four in Kolkata, two in Durgapur, one in Burdwan.
According to an election official, of the 125 central force companies, 60 will be from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), 30 from the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), 25 from the Border Security Force (BSF), and five each from the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and ITBP.
The BJP delegation led by Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta and senior party leader Sisir Bajoria submitted a letter to the chief electoral officer of West Bengal.
“It has also come to our notice that the state government has allocated CPF in various police districts in a manner that will serve the best interest of the party in power, without any regard to areas which have witnessed widespread violence. There will be no point served if CPF is made to make route marches in national and state highways and are kept away from sensitive areas…” read the letter.
Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/kolkata/12-capf-companies-reach-kolkata-7197689/
