Everybody is afraid of Bengal Panchayat polls. Even those who work for Mamata's government

The dismal state of security in Bengal before large-scale Panchayat elections has become even more apparent – a sizeable section of the state government's employees have now sought proper security for polling. While some of these employees owe allegiance to opposition parties, some are also affiliated with the ruling Trinamool Congress.

The government staff apprehend violence and are concerned about their safety as it will be them who will eventually have conduct the polling process at the ground level, whenever electiosn are held. As of now, the Calcutta High Court is yet to okay 14 May as the date of polling, proposed by the state election commission (SEC).

There has been rampant violence in West Bengal during the process of filing of nominations, with all major opposition parties alleging that their candidates were forcibly kept away from filing nominations. So much so that in more than a third of seats, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's party is set to win unopposed.

The widespread violence has even raised concerns about the lack of democratic space in the state and several quarters have criticised the government. Paradoxically it still enjoyed a lot of support for its scheme, according to a recent survey by a leading media house in the state otherwise critical of the government.

This violence seems to have spooked the governent staff who apprehended more on polling day. “Employees are afraid to go on polling duty after violence during filing of nominations. We have urged the SEC to provide adequate security to polling personnel,” said Manoj Chakraborty, convenor of Trinamool-backed Employees Federation. He demanded that the government announces a compensation of Rs 20 lakh for the family in case any staff member dies on duty.

Bijay Shankar Sinha, general secretary of Communist Party of India (Marxist)-backed State Co-ordination Committee of West Bengal said there were plans to meet election commissioner Amarendra Singh Thursday. “We have already sent a deputation to the commission demanding adequate security.”

He underscored that that proper security cover would be necessary for around 2.5 lakh polling personnel to be deployed in around 58,467 polling stations in 20 districts. “We feel that for each polling premise there should be an armed police personnel and in the polling booth there should be at least four police officers,” he said and added that families of polling personnel were really worried.