Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s announcement claiming that the seven Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) who had been suspended by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on charges of dereliction of duty will be utilised in state administrative duties other than electoral assignments is being view by the poll panel as the partial and negligible implementation of that suspension.
Sources in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, explained that besides the suspension of the seven AEROs, the Commission had also directed the West Bengal government to initiate departmental proceedings against these seven electoral officers.
“Now the question of the commission is how a departmental inquiry would be effectively carried out by the state government when the higher administrative chair in the state is interpreting the suspension as just shifting them from electoral assignment to other administrative assignments. So the Commission feels that the suspension of the seven AEROs has not been implemented in the true spirit of it at least what had been evident from the statements of the Chief Minister on Tuesday,” said sources in the CEO’s office.
He also said that the Commission is keeping a close watch on the development.
“It will wait for a couple of days and then again seek a report from the state government on the initiation of a departmental probe against these seven AEROs,” the sources said.
The seven AEROs suspended by the ECI are Sefaur Rahaman from Samserganj Assembly constituency in Murshidabad district, Nitish Das from Farakka Assembly constituency in Murshidabad district, Dalia Ray Choudhury from Maynaguri Assembly constituency in Jalpaiguri district, Murshid Alam from Suti Assembly constituency in Murshidabad district, Satyajit Das and Joydeep Kundu from Canning (Purba) Assembly constituency in South 24 Parganas district, and Debashis Biswas from Debra Assembly constituency in West Midnapore district.
Legal experts, however, feel that a proper departmental probe against these seven AEROs will be inevitable, especially after the announcement of the polling dates for the crucial Assembly polls later this year and the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) being in force immediately from the time of announcement.
“Then the entire administrative control of the state government will come under ECI and the departmental probe against these seven AEROs will be inevitable. But in that case, it would be a major loss of face for the state government,” said a legal expert.
(IANS)
