Eighteen IPS officers will supervise the immersion of Durga idols in four West Bengal cities — Kolkata, Howrah, Barrackpore and Chandannagar — from Dashami on Wednesday, October 21, until October 24, a senior police officer said on Wednesday, according to IANS. Twelve of the officers have been stationed in the Kolkata Police area alone. A notification was issued by the state police late on Tuesday night, setting out each officer's assigned dates and areas.

In Kolkata, Gaurav Sharma, Soma Das Mitra, Rashid Munir Khan, Akash Magharia, Suresh Kumar Chadive and Dhritimaan Sarkar will supervise immersions on October 21 and 23, while Praveen Kumar Tripathi, Imran Wahab, Sheesh Ram Jhajharia, Soumya Roy, Parijat Biswas and Siddharth Dhapola will be in charge on October 22 and 24. In Howrah, Indra Chakraborty will supervise on October 21 and 23 and Avaru Rabindranath on October 22 and 24. Palash Chandra Dhali and Duteeman Bhattacharya have been assigned to the Barrackpore Police District, and Abhijit Banerjee and Sandeep Mandal to Chandannagar.

Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari visited Babughat on Wednesday with Kolkata Police Commissioner Ajay Kumar Nand and Kolkata Municipal Commissioner Smita Pandey to review the immersion preparations, PTI reported. "Additional precautions have been taken, and security arrangements have been strengthened. The NDRF is also involved in security arrangements. Cleaning work will be carried out after the immersions are over," the chief minister said.

The stepped-up supervision follows the stampede on October 17, the first day of Saptami, at the Chorbagan Sarbojanin Durga Puja pandal in Kolkata, in which 19 visitors were killed. Eyewitnesses claimed the stampede followed sudden rain, and it has been alleged that panic spread after announcements made by the puja organisers — allegations that remain under investigation. Kolkata Police have formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the incident, and seven people have been arrested in connection with it. Since the tragedy, the administration has kept surveillance at popular pandals and made additional crowd-control arrangements, and officials said the IPS deployment is meant to ensure no untoward situation arises during the immersion process.