Central forces to hit Kolkata streets from Saturday

KOLKATA: The first company of BSF which is likely to reach Kolkata on Friday evening will hit the streets the very next morning.
Police said they expect to split the BSF company in 8 to 10 platoons to patrol several Kolkata zones like Shahid Nagar area near Panchasayer, Cossipore Udyanbati area and pockets in Entally and Tangra. Police expects to establish area domination and instil confidence among voters.They will begin patrolling from Saturday morning.
A senior officer said, “Each zone DCP have been asked to coordinate CAPF. The instruction is that police action must be visible. It will begin with naka checks -- in at least two to three points -- in each police station, routine rounds by senior cops and checking and frisking. Temporary bamboo structures have been put to restrict traffic and carry out checks at 82 points city-wide.”
Kolkata, EC sources said, has more than 1200 vulnerable hamlets.
The one company BSF which will be deployed in Kolkata is in addition to the nine companies of BSF reaching Bengal on Friday which will be deployed state-wide.
Two companies will be deployed in South 24-Parganas, eight other districts including North 24 Parganas, Murshidabad, Malda, East Midnapore, North Dinajpur, Birbhum, Paschim Bardhaman will have one company each.
According to initial indications nearly 125 companies of central forces are likely to reach the state in April first week for the first phase of election where Coochbehar and Alipurduar. The two Lok Sabha seats goes to polls on April 11.
EC sources indicated in this 125 companies, around 15 companies will be set aside a reserve force to man the counting centres.
According to EC sources this entire detachment is likely to reach Bengal in two or three phases. They will move in the poll-bound zones immediately after the nomination process is over and will be deployed for confidence-building-measures and area domination.
EC sources also indicated that they will follow the CAPF deployment pattern in 2014 Lok Sabha where two armed CAPF personnel will be deployed per polling station and, in case, a polling station has two booths then three CAPF personnel will be deployed.
In case of more than two booths there will five CAPF personnel manning the booths. Apart from that, one company of force will be allocated for each assembly constituency dedicatedly for flying squad and patrolling purpose. The two parliamentary constituencies of Cooch Behar and Alipurduar have 3844 booths spread over 3002 polling premises.