West Bengal govt gives new postings to police officers transferred by ECI

Kolkata: Several West Bengal Police and Kolkata Police officers who were transferred by the Election Commission of India (ECI) earlier in the day were given new postings by the state government on Monday.

The Election Commission removed officers holding the posts of Director General of Police (DGP), Kolkata Police Commissioner, DGP (Law and Order) and DGP (Prisons). Within a few hours, the state government reassigned the removed officers to new positions.

Piyush Pandey has been appointed as Director of Security. Until now, he had been serving as the Director General of Police.

Manoj Verma, who previously held the post of Director of Security, has been transferred and posted as Additional Director General (ADG) of Security.

Kolkata Police Commissioner Supratim Sarkar was also removed from his post. Ajay Kumar Nand has been appointed as the new Commissioner of Police in Kolkata.

Following his removal, Supratim Sarkar has been appointed as Additional Director General (CID). He has also been given the additional charge of ADG (Intelligence Branch) for Kolkata.

The Commission also ordered changes in the posts of DGP (Law and Order) and DGP (Prisons).

Vineet Goyal, who had been serving as DGP (Law and Order), has been appointed as the Director General of the State Intelligence Branch.

Ajay Mukund Ranade has been appointed as Additional Director General (Law and Order).

Natarajan Ramesh Babu has been appointed as Director General (Prisons).

Lakshmi Narayan Meena, who earlier served as ADG (CID), has now been assigned the charge of ADG (Prisons).

Earlier in the day, the Election Commission had announced that the officers removed from their posts would not be assigned any election-related responsibilities until the completion of the electoral process.

Accordingly, the state government reassigned them to other posts later in the afternoon.

On Sunday, the Election Commission announced the poll schedule for four states — including West Bengal — and one Union Territory.

While voting in the other states will be held in a single phase, the Assembly elections in West Bengal will take place in two phases on April 23 and April 29.

Immediately after the announcement of the election schedule, the Model Code of Conduct came into force across the state.

During this period, the Election Commission exercises special powers over the administrative machinery.

IANS