Kolkata: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday sent a reminder to the West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Pant on sending the compliance report on the commissions direction earlier this month directing the state government to suspend four election officials attached to two Assembly constituencies in two districts of West Bengal for their involvement in wrongful addition of names in the electoral rolls.
To recall, on August 5, the commission had sent a communique to Pant directing the suspension of four election officers, two electoral returning officers (EROs) and two assistant electoral returning officers (AEROs) and also filing FIRs against these four officials.
In the same communique dated August 5, it also directed the Chief Secretary to ensure strict compliance with the instructions and send an action-taken report to the Commission at the earliest.
However, since three days have passed since then and the West Bengal government is yet to send any compliance report to the commission, the latter on Monday has forwarded a strongly-worded reminder to send the same and has also fixed a deadline for the same.
“No compliance report indicating specific action against each of the officers has been received by the Commission so far. The Commission has directed that necessary action against the above officers shall be taken immediately and a compliance report to be furnished to the Commission, latest by 3 p.m. on 11th August, 2025,” read the fresh reminder (communique) to Pant from the ECI Secretary Sujeet Kumar Mishra.
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.
To recall, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, Manoj Kumar Agarwal, first conducted a thorough probe against these two EROs, two AEROs, and one data entry operator following complaints received against them on their involvement in the wrongful addition of names in the electoral rolls of these two constituencies.
Thereafter, the office of the CEO also forwarded a report on their findings to the commission, 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 unauthorized 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)
