From bamboo walls to AI eyes: West Bengal election gets unprecedented surveillance push

Kolkata: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has started installing the cameras for webcasting, starting from Thursday (today), a week (on P-7) ahead of the first phase of the assembly polls in West Bengal. AI technology will be used to monitor webcasting during the Assembly elections as part of enhanced surveillance, with 100% webcasting in all polling booths, a first time initiative by ECI. ECI will also undertake erection of temporary bamboo fencing in all the polling stations, which do not have proper boundary walls, in a bid to prevent the entry of unauthorised persons during election process.

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The two-phase polling in West Bengal will be on April 23 and April 29. The results will be declared on May 4.


During a series of meetings held by Special Rolls Observer Subrata Gupta and NK Mishra, in the last one week in various districts, starting from Malda, Murshidabad to Coochebehar with the Central Observers and other stakeholders, it was identified that several polling stations have no boundary walls which may pose difficulty during polling.

“Temporary Bamboo fencing will be erected in the polling booths without boundaries. The absence of boundaries was a problem identified during the meeting with the central observers,” Gupta told ET.

The school buildings, which are generally converted to polling booths during elections, in many cases don’t have proper boundary walls, making it easy for unauthorised persons to access the polling stations.

For better surveillance of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) personnel and safety of the booths, bamboo fencing will be undertaken.

Also Read: EC to deploy 2,407 central forces for first phase of Bengal elections on April 23

In many cases unfenced polling stations located in the remote areas with thick forests around them, make the polling stations more vulnerable from a security perspective.

AI Technology

AI technology will be used to monitor webcasting during the Assembly elections in Bengal. “If more than four voters enter any polling booth, a ‘Pop up’ will show from the polling booths to the Election Commission’s Control and Command Centre’s screens. A pop-up alert will also notify the Commission if more than one person is present inside the voting compartment. The Election Commission will take strict action after reviewing the relevant footage,” CEO Manoj Kumar Agarwal said.

The Commission has also directed the booth-level officers (BLOs) to personally reach the doorsteps of the voters to distribute the voting-slips. The BLOs will be sitting outside the polling booths as they have conducted SIR and well aware of the voters and booths.

West Bengal CEO has already issued strict guidelines to sector officers, presiding officers, and other polling officials to maintain impartiality during the polling process and not to accept any food, water, or other items offered to them by any representative of any political party. CAPF has also been instructed to accept no hospitality from anyone.