“The ECI will not tolerate any deterioration of the law and order situation. Non-bailable warrants must be executed. Naka checking process as well as precise mapping of sensitive areas should be started,” said Aftab during the meeting.

In a statement released on Saturday, the Election Commission of India (ECI) said that state governments should ensure that officers transferred out of a district are not posted in the same or adjacent parliamentary constituency.

“Taking serious note of the cases wherein officers are being transferred/posted in adjacent districts within the same parliamentary constituency by the state governments, the commission has strengthened its existing transfer policy to ensure that officials are not able to disturb the level playing field in the elections. Plugging the loopholes in the existing instructions, the Commission has directed that, except for the States/UTs that comprise up to two parliamentary constituencies, all states shall ensure that officers who are transferred out of the district are not posted within the same parliamentary constituency,” the EC said.

The EC’s statement comes at a time when the Trinamool Congress-led state government has been facing heat after violent protests broke out in Sandeshkhali and neighbouring villages in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.

The protesters accused TMC strongman Shahjahan Sheikh and his aides of land grabbing and sexually harassing women. Sheikh, a Zilla Parishad member, is currently on the run.The full bench of the ECI will be on a three-day visit to Bengal starting March 3.