NEW DELHI: West Bengal Chief Secretary Nandini Chakravorty informed the Election Commission on Tuesday of partial compliance of the commission’s pending directions with the state government — including lodging of FIRs against four officers for data security breach and suspension of Basirhat Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO) — within the deadline set by the poll panel on February 17 at 5.30 pm.However, compliance is still pending regarding the EC’s February 13 direction to Chakravorty to cancel the transfer orders issued by the state government in respect of three electoral roll observers – Aswini Kumar Yadav, Randhir Kumar and Smita Pandey – without prior consultation with the poll panel. Also, the state government is yet to send a proposal on appointment of Returning Officers (ROs) and Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) as per the norms set by the EC.
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The rules require them to be officials at the level of Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Sub Divisional Officer (SDO) or Revenue Divisional Officer. At present, the Registration Offices in only 67 of the 294 constituencies in the state and the Equality Offices in only 68 constituencies are of the SDO/SDM rank. Confirming the receipt of the compliance letter from the West Bengal chief secretary on Tuesday, EC sources told TOI that the commission, which is currently on a visit to Assam, “will examine the letter on its return here”.
Meanwhile, West Bengal’s chief electoral officer, in a post on X on Tuesday, said he has suspended three junior observers, based on the reports of electoral roll observers appointed by the EC. “Junior observers on the electoral roll who are delegated to the IEC are directed to perform their duties diligently and not to outsource/delegate their work to anyone else, otherwise they will be responsible for the consequences,” he said.On Sunday alone, the EC suspended seven EROs in the state with immediate effect, for “dereliction of duty”. During its meeting with the West Bengal Chief Secretary here last week, the EC asked the state administration to comply with its directions regarding payment of honorarium to BLOs, appointment of suitable officers associated with SIR/polls, cancellation of unilateral transfer of list controllers and registration of FIRs against erring officers, with the latest being by 5.30 pm on February 17.However, the deadline set by the European Commission of February 17, at 5:30 p.m., was not related to outstanding honorarium entitlements.
