Home minister P. Chidambaram on Friday said that “barring a few isolated incidents, full security was provided to the voters as well as election officials” in West Bengal during the Assembly elections in the state. A total of 758 companies of the CAPFs were deployed for purposes of the elections, he said while speaking at his monthly press conference.
Mr Chidambaram said the CRPF, which is in the forefront of anti-Naxal operations across the country, has begun the process of preparing special counter-IED teams comprising more than 2100 of its retired officials. “CRPF has initiated the process of employment of 434 retired junior commissioned officials and 1,736 retired non-commissioned officials on contractual basis to form counter-IED teams in 62 CRPF battalions deployed for anti-Naxal operations,” he said. He said the Centre is hopeful of spending the `1,500 crores allocated to 60 worst Maoist-hit districts.