Almost all booths in city sensitive: Top cop
Stressing the need for deploying armed policemen at every booth in the city, police commissioner Sujay Chakrabarty has said that nearly all the 800 booths in the city are sensitive.
Stressing the need for deploying armed policemen at every booth in the city, police commissioner Sujay Chakrabarty said on Wednesday that nearly all the 800 booths in the city are sensitive.

Police and paramilitary forces will patrol the congested areas keeping this in mind, he said.
Speaking to Hindustan Times, Chakrabarty said that the police were not taking any chances and have formulated a unique system of intervention using computerised data.
“All the relevant data of the booth premises within the city limit have been computersied. This will include names of the premises, the constituency number, name and cellphone numbers of the police officer-in-charge, the officer-in-charge of the local police station and that of the polling or presiding officer. All this information will be available at the click of mouse,” he said.
At a meeting with the senior officers and OCs of all the 45 police stations, Chakrabarty asked the policemen to play a “neutral” role and strictly abide by the EC directives.
If required, the commissioner said, the police could even stop a minister from entering the polling booth. No gathering would be allowed within 100 metres of the booth and no one would be permitted to enter the 100-metre zone with a cellphone, said the commissioner.
The police have been instructed not to check voters’ ID cards or even chase bogus voters. In case of a false voter, they would act on the basis of a complaint by the polling officer.
The police, however, would ensure no one except the candidate and his election agent is allowed to move around with the party flag. The cops were asked to be alert since EC representatives would be monitoring with video cameras.
All two-wheelers and four wheelers parked near a booth would be scanned, Chakrabarty said.
Lalbazar police control will run five additional lines from May 7 to May 13 to deal with complaints both from the voters and the candidates. Besides,
all SIs on duty would be provided with mobile phones. According to the police, 15,000-plus forces would be deployed on May 10 across the city in addition to six companies of Central forces. For the first time, police would stand as guards during the movement of EVMs through narrow lanes a day prior to the polls.
Wednesday’s meeting came hours after the chief electoral officer met the police officers at Nandan. The officers were handed over a bilingual booklet detailing the rules of intervention and action.