CEC to visit Kolkata before West Bengal polls

New Delhi, Mar 20 (UNI) Chief Election Commissioner B B Tandon with his deputies N. Gopalaswami and Navin Chawla will visit Kolkata tomorrow for two days to oversee arrangements for the forthcoming West Bengal Assembly elections.

About 358 officers are being appointed as observers to supervise the election process.

After West Bengal, the Election Commission (EC) team will visit Assam for a day.

The EC today held a briefing meeting for observers who play an important statutory role to ensure free and fair elections.

''All observers have been asked to look into deployment plan of central security forces in constituencies,'' said Mr Tandon. ''They will also examine classification of hypersensitive and sensitive polling stations.'' For the West Bengal polls, 13 lakh names of those dead or shifted have been deleted from the voters' list. At the same time, said Mr Tandon, 21 names have been added.

The observers have been directed to ensure that extensive videography is done of all critical events that may take place during the election process.

The CEC said observers will enforce the model code of conduct and take strict action if there are any violations.

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