PATNA, Sept. 7 -- Ahead of the state assembly polls in Bihar, the state election department has started the ground preparations for conduct of polls with directives set to be issued to field officers including district election officers (DEOs)-cum-DMs and electoral registration officers- cum-SDOs to start identifying dispatch centres, identification of vulnerable booths and also communication plan, people familiar with the matter said. More importantly, the state election department will also set up 16 cells at the state headquarter level for monitoring of the conduct of the state polls like electronic voting machines (EVM) cells, communication cells, SWIFT cells and I-T cells so that voters' awareness and other poll activities could be done smoothly. "We will have 16 cells for monitoring of state polls at the headquarters level, which will be functional soon. There will also be campaigns for voters' awareness and other poll related matters through the cells," said an election officer. Officials also said that the focus on conduct of the state polls would get intensified from next week onwards when directives would be issued to all DMs and other field election officers to identify the dispatch centres (where central armed police forces (CAPF) would be stationed before being sent to booths), communication plans and vulnerability mapping. "The list of critical booths is being prepared based on the various criteria of vulnerability. Other poll works are also going on," said another election officer. People familiar with the development said a high-level team of Election Commission of India (ECI) will be visiting Bihar soon to review the poll preparedness before the announcement of state polls and may interact with representatives of recognised political parties. The state election department and state police administration have also started working on the proposal for requisitioning Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) and other security personnel from state police for deployment during the forthcoming polls. There are indications there could be deployment of around 300 plus companies of CAPF and other security forces apart from the district armed police for conduct of the state polls in a fair and peaceful manner. "In the last assembly polls, 300 plus CAPF had come for deployment in poll duty. This time too, the deployment of security personnel for conduct of the polls would be quite heavy," said another official, adding that discussions on this matter were still going on with the ECI and state administration.There are indications that the state assembly polls could be announced in the first week of October soon after the final publication of the updated electoral rolls as per Special Intensive Revision (SIR)....