The West Bengal State Election Commission (SEC) said on Monday that it would be “impossible” to conduct panchayat polls if the State Government does not ensure proper security arrangements.
Appearing before the Calcutta High Court, Samaraditya Pal, counsel for the SEC, said: “We have no solution in this situation where the State and Centre say that they cannot provide forces. It is impossible for the Commission to hold (rural) elections on stipulated dates, unless security forces are made available.”
According to him, “any further rescheduling of the poll phases must be done after the State Government assures security”.
Obligation
Even though the three-phase rural polls in the State are slated to begin after a week (July 2, July 6 and July 9), the State Government has failed to assure availability of the required security personnel till date as per a Court order.
The Commission had on June 18 filed an application before a Division Bench of Chief Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Joymalya Bagchi claiming that the State Government had failed to make “adequate security arrangements” for polls.
“We have burnt our fingers, tried our level best. But, since 2012, the result has been a magnificent zero,” Pal told the Court, referring to the security arrangement issue.
The Court observed that holding rural polls was a “Constitutional obligation” and should be held as per schedule. It also asked the parties to come forward with their views on how the situation can be resolved.
Centre’s response
Meanwhile, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, which has been made a party to the petition, has been asked by the Court to inform how many security personnel it can provide. The State Government had sent a letter to the Ministry last week seeking 300 companies of central paramilitary forces to conduct the polls.
Siddhartha Sankar Sarker, counsel for the home ministry, told the Court that it would be difficult to provide security personnel at “a very short notice” as there was increasing demand for forces in the flood-hit areas in Uttarakhand, Naxal-hit regions and in Assam.
The Court then asked Sarker whether he had ever “come across a situation where elections were not held because of paucity of forces”.