Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday urged Calcutta's police commissioner Vineet Goyal to set up a separate police division for Bhangar, some 30km east of Calcutta, which saw violence both in the run-up to the July 8 rural polls and later.

A part of Bhangar comes under the ambit of the Calcutta Leather Complex police station under Calcutta police. The rest falls under the Bidhannagar police commissionerate.

A hub of political violence with large swathes of land up for real estate development in New Town and a big chunk comprising water bodies, Bhangar was seething since the panchayat polls were declared this time. Reports of clashes continued to keep the cops on their toes and the state embarrassed with bombs and bullets flying indiscriminately.

On Wednesday, Mamata met a section of senior officers of the Calcutta police at the Bodyguard Lines in Alipore for an informal chat over tea. The event was a closed-door affair. The chief minister was accompanied by the state's chief secretary and home secretary apart from the commissioners from the police commissionerates of Bidhannagar and Calcutta.

Senior officers present at the event said Mamata, while lauding the efforts of the Calcutta police in maintaining the city's law and order, suddenly brought up Bhangar.

She asked Manoj Malaviya, Bengal's director general of police accompanying her, why Bhangar continued to be so prone to trouble.

"The DGP's reply was not very audible. The chief minister said the state police were possibly way too stretched to cover such a large area and urged the police commissioner (Goyal) to take up Bhangar as a new police division," said a senior officer of Calcutta police present at the event. "She even said the police commissioner may be reluctant but she believes Bhangar should be under Calcutta police. A request from the chief minister is as good as an order."

On the night of July 11, when counting for the rural polls was on, three youths, including two ISF supporters had died succumbing to bullet injuries in Bhangar's Kantalia as violence erupted on an unprecedented scale. Several persons were injured, including a senior police officer of the rank of additional SP of Baruipur police district and his bodyguard.

There are nine police divisions under the Calcutta police. Bhangar will be the 10th.

Senior officers said a final proposal to set up the police district will call for a former notification after a cabinet clearance and procedural clearances from a slew of departments.

CPM leader Sujan Chakrabarty said bringing Bhangar under Calcutta police would not stop "vote loot".