637 weapons, 975 cartridges seized in WB ahead of polls

, Apr 1: In a state-wide drive against illegal arms and ammunitions ahead of Lok Sabha elections, altogether 637 weapons and 975 cartridges were seized so far, the Election Commission sources said here today.

The OSD-in-charge of Expenditure in CEO's office Amit Roy Chowdhury said the list of seizures also included 32.7 kg of explosive materials and 3,372 bombs.

32.7 kg of explosive materials were also retrieved.

Altogether 14,662 licenced arms have so far been surrendered by the owners, while 2,287 undeclared arms have been impounded, besides cancellation of 145 arms, by the administration. Roy Chowdhury also said 51,735 persons have been detained as part of preventive measures.

Apart from this, 31,244 Non-Bailable Warrants were executed so far, while 11,284 vulnerable hamlets have been identified by the administration acting on guidelines by the Election Commission.

The state administration also identified probable trouble makers during the election process, while preventive action had been initiated against 7,291 of them, he said.

PTI