WB Chief Secretary meets State Election Commissioner

Kolkata: Two days after the Supreme Court issued directive re-scheduling Panchayat polls in West Bengal in five phases, state Chief Secretary Sanjay Mitra on Sunday met the State Election Commmissioner Mira Pandey. Pandey and Mitra believed to have discussed deployment of forces and pertinent notifications required for holding the exercise from July 11 to 25, as per the apex court directive.

However, officially nothing was known about what transpired at the meeting. The apex court directed the state government to provide on an average 35,000 security personnel for each phase of the election. Rest of the required security forces will be provided by the Centre.

Meanwhile, a section of the minority community members today staged a demonstration and submitted a memorandum before the SEC demanding it to further re-schedule panchayat poll not covering the Ramzan month, city police sources said. The SEC secretary Tapas Roy said that the Commission would abide by the SC directive.