West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal will hold a crucial meeting with 25 nodal agencies on December 11 to discuss the preventive measures and strategies to combat the menace of money power in the Assembly elections scheduled to be held next year.

“Although the schedule for the Assembly Elections has not yet been announced, preparations for the polls are on and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process is one of them. The State Chief Electoral Officer is set to hold a crucial meeting on this subject on December 11,” said a senior official.

“The meeting is mainly with enforcement agencies for the seizures and with various agencies over preventive arrests before the election,” he added.

Officials said the meeting assumes significance as the Election Commission (EC) has already initiated the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process in the state and this is a pre-election move by the EC to prepare a robust mechanism to counter money power and other forms of electoral malpractices as well as discuss the state’s security situation and ways to bolster border security

However, when asked if the meeting will also be on “sensitive booth” officials declined to comment.

According to sources, the meeting will be attended by representatives from various enforcement and surveillance agencies, including the Reserve Bank of India, Intelligence Department, Income Tax Department, and other security agencies.

The EC recently completed electronic voting machine (EVM) checks on November 21, and the process will continue in phases till mid-January.

The agencies invited to the meeting include the offices of:

– Director General of Police

– Principal Secretary, Transport Department

– Commissioner of Police

– Director General of Income Tax

– ADG and IGP (Enforcement Branch)

– SNO (Expenditure)

– Regional Director, Reserve Bank of India

– Commissioner of Excise, Government of West Bengal

– Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, Government of West Bengal

– Special Director (Enforcement Directorate)

– Regional Head, Kolkata

– Principal Chief Conservator of Forest and Head of the Forest Force

– Deputy Director General, Narcotics Control Bureau, Eastern Region

– Principal ADG, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence

– Chief Commissioner of Customs, Kolkata Zone

– Principal Commissioner of CGST and CX

– Headquarters Special Eastern Command IG, TM

– Indian Coast Guard Regional Headquarters (NE)

– Additional Director General, BSF

– Chief Postmaster General, West Bengal Circle, Kolkata

– IG, CISF, Kolkata

– IG cum PCSC, RPF, Eastern Railway

– IG, Sashastra Seema Bal, Siliguri

– Regional Executive Director, Eastern Region, Airport Authority of India

– Regional Director, Eastern Region, Bureau of Civil Aviation

– Director, State Civil Aviation, West Bengal

– Convenor, SLBC, West Bengal