ELECTION SECURITY

Special security cover for Cooch Behar

COOCH BEHAR, March 26: After the recent blast in neighbouring Alipurduar town in Jalpaiguri, the Cooch Behar District Police are in no mood to take any chance in maintaining peace during the Lok Sabha election.

The IGP (North Bengal) Mr KL Tamta and Special IGP (Jalpaiguri Range) Mr DT Lepcha are to visit Cooch Behar tomorrow. They will attend a meeting of senior police officials of the district and review the ongoing situation.

Though the district requires additional forces for conducting a peaceful election the number of required personnel are yet to be ascertained. Meanwhile, the police are busy to arrange a tight-knit security net for the next Sunday's meeting of Trinamul supremo Miss Mamata Banerjee in Dinhata. As the Trinamul leader enjoys a Z-plus category of security the district police will provide adequate security measure for making her visit trouble-free, according to the Cooch Behar SP, Mr DP Singh.

The number of sensitive booths in this district is yet to be ascertained. Identification of the areas is going on. The Election Commission observers are to take the final decision based on reports submitted by the DM and the SP.

During the identification of a sensitive booth its distance from the nearest police station, all kinds of connectivity and history of violence occurred in the particular area are being examined, the SP, Mr DP Singh, said. There exists no special threat to the election till now from any underground outfit, but a general threat is there, as usual, he said.

The history of the KLO activists those were once active in this area and their surrendered counterparts is under examination. As the KLO activists of sixth to tenth batches who received training in Bangladesh are staying underground, they may pose troubles in this area in near future, Intelligence officials believe. Cooch Behar Police should keep strict watch on the surrendered KLO activists, suspected Maoists and all other persons with suspicious history to avert troubles, the Intelligence agencies advised the police.