The state election commission on Sunday asked district administrations to invoke Section 144 of the CrPC within a radius of 1km of offices where the submission of papers for rural polls is being held in an apparent attempt to avoid any further trouble during the nomination filing.

“I am directed to state that with a view to maintain law and order in the vicinity of the venue of nomination and in order to conduct the event of nominations smoothly, the Commission directs that an order under Section 144 CrPC be promulgated in the areas within 1km radius of the nomination venues concerned till completion of the nomination process,” reads an order issued by the secretary of the state poll panel.

Senior government officials said that a blanket promulgation of Section 144 during the nomination was never announced across the state before this.

“I can recall that Section 144 was imposed in a few nomination centres which fall in sensitive districts like Birbhum, South 24-Parganas and North 24-Parganas in the past two panchayat elections. But I have never seen a blanket promulgation of Section 144 in the nomination centres before this,” said a bureaucrat.

The order clearly mentioned that only two persons including the candidate and the proposer or one person on their behalf should be allowed to enter the nomination venue.

Sources said that the state poll panel was forced to initiate the step after complaints of violent incidents over filing of nominations flooded the state election commission soon after filing of nominations started on Friday.

Majority of the complaints which were lodged with the poll panel stated that candidates belonging to the opposition parties were being prevented from filing nominations allegedly by the ruling party cadres.

“As it has been witnessed that a group of people are creating trouble in front of the nomination venues, prohibitory orders have been issued restricting entry in and around the nomination venues,” explained an official.

Sources also said that the state election commission is desperate to establish that it was taking enough measures to hold the rural polls peacefully after several questions were raised over the way the elections were declared hurriedly.

The poll panel also needs to take some action as demands of deployment of central forces are increasing after the violent incidents over filing nominations on the first two days, sources said.

“Uncomfortable questions have been raised in Calcutta High Court. If the poll panel remains a mute spectator, the court can give some serious observations, which would be uncomfortable for the ruling establishment,” said a source.

NHRC takes suo motu cognisance: The National Human Rights Commission took suo motu cognisance of media reports on the violence related to the panchayat polls in Bengal, and decided to depute its director-general (investigation), as a “Special Human Rights Observer”. The official is expected to conduct surveys from the spot, in consultation with the state election commission, to identify sensitive constituencies where violence is likely.