Over 1,500 government employees on Tuesday threatened to skip poll duty in the Raiganj Lok Sabha seat if central forces were not deployed at each booth, with many of the staff walking out of pre-election training sessions to make the demand.

The 1,500 staff make up around 15 per cent of the 10,000 required for the 2,000-odd booths. The protesters have cited the case of a teacher found dead under mysterious circumstances during last year’s rural polls in which he was a presiding officer.

“They wanted a written assurance on deployment of central forces at all booths… They came out of all four training centres (in Raiganj and Islampur) and sat on a dharna,” said a source in North Dinajpur administration. The Raiganj seat falls under North Dinajpur. Raiganj will vote on April 18.

Following the demonstrations on Tuesday, a delegation of the personnel submitted a memorandum to the election observer of the district.

“During the rural polls (in May 2018), Rajkumar Roy, a presiding officer, had died. The cause is still not clear. The incident has led us to demand proper security. Unless we get a written assurance, over 1,500 personnel will not attend training and not sign up for poll duty,” said Priyabrata Pal, a teacher in Raiganj.

Roy was found dead along rail tracks days after having stepped out his panchayat poll booth last year.

Arvind Meena, the district magistrate, said all necessary arrangements had been made to ensure the security of poll personnel.

“We have kept all 2,076 booths under CCTV and Web cameras. There is no reason for the personnel to get worried about security. We will initiate action against those who boycotted training,” Meena said.