EC summons Bengal Chief Secretary over suspension of ‘tainted’ officers

A day after the West Bengal government wrote to the Election Commission that it did not intend to suspend just yet its officers alleged to have committed “irregularities” in electoral roll revision, the poll panel on Tuesday (August 12) summoned state Chief Secretary Manoj Pant to Delhi to explain the decision.

The state’s top bureaucrat has been directed to report in person to Nirvachan Sadan, the EC headquarters in the national capital, by 5 pm on August 13.

Fresh flashpoint

The move came in response to Pant’s communication to the ECI on Monday, stating that suspending the identified officers and filing FIRs against them, as directed by the poll panel, would be “disproportionately harsh” and have a “demoralising impact” on the officers’ community in Bengal.

The government, instead, chose to remove two of the five EC-identified officials from active election duty for now and initiate an “internal inquiry” into the matter.

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Political observers interpret this as a fresh flashpoint in the ongoing face-off between the Mamata Banerjee government and the EC.

Pant’s response to EC

News agency PTI quoted sources in the state secretariat Nabanna as saying that the chief secretary was likely to fly to Delhi on Wednesday and meet the EC, as directed.

Pant on Monday responded to an EC-set deadline to execute a suspension order against five officials — two Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), two Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs), and a casual data entry operator — for allegedly committing irregularities while preparing electoral rolls in Baruipur Purba and Moyna assembly constituencies in South 24-Parganas and Purba Medinipur districts, respectively.

The poll panel had also directed the chief secretary to lodge FIRs against all five accused and sought an action-taken report from the top bureaucrat at the earliest.

Any disciplinary measure without holding a thorough inquiry on state government officers who have “consistently demonstrated sincerity and competence” would be “disproportionately harsh”, the chief secretary wrote to the ECI in his response.

State vs EC

The government informed the EC that it had removed two personnel — Sudipta Das, AERO, Moyna AC, and Surajit Halder, data entry operator at Baruipur Purba AC — from electoral revision and poll-related duties as “a first step” in its process of assigning responsibility for the alleged irregularity.

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The state’s response did not mention any action taken against the three other officers identified by the EC, two of whom are officers of WBCS (Executive) rank, and stated that “further action taken report will be submitted post completion of enquiry”.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had questioned the EC’s jurisdiction and legality of the move while alleging that the BJP was using the ECI to “intimidate state government officers”.

“We will not suspend them; we will protect you. I will continue to be your paharadar (guard),” Mamata said at a public meeting in Jhargram last week, while tearing into the poll panel, and accusing it of functioning like “bonded labourers” of the BJP.

(With agency inputs)