Bengal urges ECI to withdraw disciplinary action order against officials accused of manipulation in voters’ enrolment
Kolkata: The West Bengal government has appealed to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to withdraw its direction for strong disciplinary action — including suspension and registration of FIRs — against four electoral officers in the state accused of manipulation in the enrolment of voters in two Assembly constituencies.
A communique in the matter from the state Home Department has reached the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal. The CEO’s office has forwarded the communique to the ECI headquarters in New Delhi for a decision, a CEO’s office insider confirmed on Friday.
Two of the four officers against whom the CEO’s office has been directed to register FIRs are the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) of Baruipur East Assembly constituency in South 24 Parganas district, Debottam Dutta Chowdhury, and the Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO) of the same constituency, Tathagata Mandal.
The other two officers are the ERO of Moyna Assembly constituency in East Midnapore district, Biplob Sarkar, and the AERO of the constituency, Sudipta Das.
To recall, in August last year, instructions came from the ECI headquarters in New Delhi to West Bengal to suspend these four electoral officers and also register FIRs against them.
However, the West Bengal government partially implemented the order. Although the four officers were suspended, FIRs were not registered against them. In addition, a contractual Data Entry Operator was also relieved of his duty.
Again earlier this month, the ECI directed the district magistrates of South 24 Parganas and East Midnapore to register FIRs against the four electoral officers. Now, before the two district electoral officers initiated the process of registering FIRs, the state government sent a request to withdraw the order for disciplinary action against the four officers.
The officers were accused of tampering with the voters’ list. On the allegation, the ECI had directed that the four officers and the Data Entry Operator should be suspended and that FIRs should be lodged against them.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had then criticised the ECI for its directive and accused the poll body of being the “bonded labour of the BJP”. She had also asserted that her government would not take any action against its employees.