RAIGANJ,April 10: As soon as the dates of panchayat poll were announced the North Dinajpur District Magistrate sought more police forces from the state government to conduct the polls peacefully in the district. It was reported that North Dinajpur police have been facing acute shortage of officers for the past few months. The post of additional superintendent of police and two DSPs are still vacant for the past four months. Apart from these, there is a shortage of 70 SI and ASI level officers in all nine police stations. North Dinajpur district is treated as a sensitive district as it shares a 221 km India -Bangladesh international border and considerable areas of Itahar, Raiganj, Karandi-ghi, Goalpokhar,Chakulia and Islampur police stations share Bengal -Bihar state border. Before panchayat polls criminals may get entry to the district from Bihar. In such a crisis law & order problem can arise before panchayat polls. If any major incident happens police will have to meet great hardships to tackle it. The North Dinajpur SP Mr SB Purnapatra said,”We are facing an acute crisis of officers in all police stations for the last few months.Yet majority of police officers are devoted to their service. So the incident of major law & order violation has not happened yet.”
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