Bengal govt refuses to abide by ECI’s order suspending four election officers

Kolkata: The West Bengal government, on Monday, had made it clear that it would not currently comply with the order from the Election Commission of India (ECI) to suspend four election officials posted with two Assembly constituencies in two districts of West Bengal for their involvement in wrongful addition of names in the electoral rolls of these two seats.

On August 8, the ECI had sent a reminder to the West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Pant on sending the compliance report over the commission’s earlier direction to the state government to suspend these four election officers and asked the Trinamool Congress government to send the compliance report on this count by Monday.

However, on Monday, the West Bengal Chief Secretary forwarded a comminque to the commission, saying that the state government is yet to order any such disciplinary action against the four election officers, as directed by the poll body.

Instead, Pant said in the communique that an internal enquiry into the issue as well as a comprehensive review of the existing processes and procedures governing the conduct of the said exercise have been undertaken.

“You will kindly appreciate that district level officials and field officers have wide range of responsibilities and functions assigned to them by their appointing authorities, in addition to the electoral roll revision works and other election-related works which are time bound tasks. Therefore, there are occasions where certain functions are delegated to subordinate staff in good faith,” the Chief Secretary’s letter said.

Pant added that it had been submitted that initiating proceedings before a detailed enquiry against these officers, who have consistently demonstrated sincerity and competence may be a disproportionately harsh measure.

“Such an action could have a demoralising impact not only on the individuals concerned but also on the broader team of officers engaged in electoral responsibilities and other administrative functions,” he said in his letter to the Commission.

As a first step, he added, the services of these four election officials have been withdrawn from electoral revision and election-related duties.

“Further action taken report will be submitted post completion of enquiry,” Pant said.

The complications on the issue of disciplinary action against the four errant election officers started from the beginning, with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee challenging the commission’s order and saying that the state government would not take any action against the four officers since all of them were state government employees.

The office of West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Manoj Kumar Agarwal, first conducted a thorough probe against these two Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), two Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs), and one data entry operator, following complaints received against them in their involvement in the wrongful addition of names in the electoral rolls of these two Assembly constituencies.

Later, the office of the CEO also sent a report on their findings to the ECI, where it was reported that the said officers had not only failed in performing duties as EROs and AEROs while disposing of the applications but also violated the policy of data security while sharing their login credentials of the election registration database with unauthorised persons.

If proven guilty, the punishment of the erring individuals will be imprisonment for a term of at least three months, but it might extend to two years, and with a fine, as per legal provisions.

IANS