Kolkata: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday named 15 Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and 10 Indian Police Service (IPS) officers from West Bengal as special roll observers (SROs) for the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) exercises in other states.
A communique from the poll panel reached the West Bengal Secretariat ‘Nabanna’ on Wednesday, asking these 15 IAS and 10 IPS officers. officers to join the two-day training for the SROs on February 5-6.
After the training is over, it will be decided which state or states they will be sent as SROs.
However, a fresh rift has surfaced between the ECI and the ruling Trinamool Congress on the appointments of these 15 IAS and 10 IPS officers as SROs for SIRs in other states.
First of all, the Commission was forced to ultimately take a unilateral decision in selecting these officers, since earlier communiques from it to the state government to send names of bureaucrats and police officers for appointment as SROs were conspicuously ignored by the latter, as per sources.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) office sources said that the Commission was compelled to take the unilateral decision of appointing these officers from West Bengal as SROs, after three consecutive communiqués in the matter were ignored by the state government.
Secondly, the list of 15 IAS officers from West Bengal, who have been selected for appointment as SROs for other states, includes state Home Secretary Jagdish Prasad Meena. The Trinamool has already raised the question of whether the Commission could unilaterally select any state Home Secretary for appointment as SRO for any other state.
Trinamool Congress state Vice-President, Jaiprakash Majumdar, said that this unilateral action of the Commission was yet another conspiracy on the Commission acting on the behest of the BJP.
“BJP is doing it from behind. Elections will be held in five states of India this year. In the states where there are no elections, work could be carried out with SROs from those states only. The BJP is desperately making all these game plans,” he said.
However, BJP’s state Vice-President, Jagannath Chattopadhyay, denied the role of his party behind the development. “This is the normal procedure followed by ECI always while appointing SROs,” he said.
(IANS)
