Election Commission scraps contract of Bengal poll webcam vendor after 'irregularities'

Kolkata: The Election Commission (EC) scrapped the contract of the agency that supplied web cameras during the 2021 West Bengal assembly and 2024 Lok Sabha elections after detecting major irregularities in footage, and has selected three new vendors for supply of equipment, a senior official said on Monday.

The decision to change the vendor was taken after serious discrepancies were found while examining recordings from cameras used in previous elections, the official said.

Three companies from outside the state have now been selected through fresh tenders to supply the equipment, he said.

"The Commission has made it clear that there should be no lapse in the conduct of polling. If violence or disturbance takes place at a booth, the poll will be stopped and re-conducted. Repolling will be held as many times as required," an EC official said.

"When the recordings from the 2021 assembly and 2024 Lok Sabha elections were examined, about 30 per cent of the cameras had no recording at all. In another 30 per cent, only about half an hour of footage at the start and end of polling was found, while the rest was blank," another source in the EC said.

Most of these cameras had been installed at sensitive booths where incidents of violence had been reported on polling day, the source added.

Officials said the absence of proper recordings also meant that the poll panel could not submit web camera footage in court in cases related to post-poll violence.

The issue came to light during checks conducted during the Kaliganj assembly by-election, following which the earlier agency's contract was cancelled and a new vendor was brought in through a fresh tender process, they said.

Under the new plan, web cameras will be installed both inside and outside polling booths, particularly in sensitive or violence-prone areas.

"In sensitive locations, two cameras will be installed at each booth. Observers will decide the number of such booths based on law-and-order reports," another official said.

West Bengal currently has around 80,719 polling booths and several thousand auxiliary booths are likely to be added, which would require at least two lakh web cameras across the state, officials said.

They added that cameras will also be installed in vehicles used by Static Surveillance Teams (SST) and Flying Squad Teams (FST), which are deployed after the model code of conduct comes into force to prevent political parties from influencing voters with cash, liquor or gifts.

"The cameras in these vehicles will help monitor where and when checks are being conducted and whether there is any negligence in duty," an official said.

The cameras will have battery backup so that recording continues even when the vehicle engine is switched off, officials said.

Control rooms to monitor the feeds will be set up at district magistrates' offices, the Chief Electoral Officer's office in Kolkata, and the Election Commission headquarters in New Delhi, they added.