Kolkata: Senior police officers across Bengal, including police commissioners of Kolkata and Bidhannagar, visited multiple police stations on Sunday to brief officers on election preparedness, guidelines, and law-and-order measures, following directives from the Election Commission of India (EC) ahead of the state assembly polls.On Sunday afternoon, Kolkata Police commissioner Ajay Nand visited Bhangar PS to review preparedness. Addressing officers, he emphasised strict adherence to the EC guidelines and reiterated that any attempt to interfere with voting would be met with decisive action.“Everyone must follow EC’s instructions. We have instructed the officers that cops from local police stations must accompany central force personnel during route marches and guide them to the farthest corner of the constituency within their jurisdiction to ensure no alley is left out. The cops themselves should be aware of the law and ensure everyone can cast their vote peacefully,” said Nand, after presiding over an open-air meeting with multiple senior and junior officers of Bhangar division outside Bhangar PS.The top cop later held a separate meeting with divisional DCs and then participated in a route march with central force personnel on Basanti Road. He visited multiple other police stations in multiple divisions through the day before holding another set of meetings with officers at Hare Street PS.Earlier in the day, Bidhannagar commissioner Murli Dhar visited Baguiati PS to implement EC’s instructions, briefing officers on six key objectives: ensuring elections are violence-free, intimidation-free, inducement-free, with no false voting, no booth-jamming, and no source-jamming. “These directives are non-negotiable. Charges of booth jams, vote-rigging, or capturing will not be tolerated under any circumstances. We will have to ensure all six objectives are met, and we discussed our strategies to meet the same,” Murli Dhar said during the visit.DIG of presidency range Kankar Prasad Barui inspected three police stations on southern suburbs —Narendrapur, Sonarpur, and Baruipur.
