The Election Commission has appointed 25 Bengal bureaucrats, including the home secretary and the police commissioners of Howrah and Asansol-Durgapur, as central observers for Assembly elections in three states and a Union Territory “without consulting” the state government.
The bureaucrats — 15 senior IAS officers of the Bengal cadre and 10 IPS officers — have been asked to be present in Delhi on February 5 and 6 for a briefing by the poll panel. These officers are to be deployed in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, where elections are scheduled this year along with Bengal.
The move, sources said, could lead to another conflict between the Bengal government and the poll panel as the state administration would not want to spare the home secretary and other senior officers for duties in other states when the state itself votes this year. The Bengal government will have to appoint new officers to fill the posts for the duration of the EC assignment.
In a letter to Bengal chief electoral officer Manoj Agarwal, the EC said the bureaucrats should be served notices to attend a briefing meeting within 24 hours.
“You are requested to ensure the service of this Briefing Meeting notice on the officer(s) within 24 hours, immediately under proper acknowledgement, through any available means/reasons,” the letter says.
The letter names home secretary Jagdish Prasad Meena, minority affairs department secretary P.B. Salim and panchayat secretary P. Ulganathan. The police commissioners of Howrah and Asansol-Durgapur, Praveen Kumar Tripathi and Sunil Kumar Choudhary, have also been named election observers.
Sources in Nabanna said the EC had made the appointments unilaterally.
"Now, given the track record of the state government, it can be safely assumed that it would not want to let go of these key officers ahead of the Assembly polls. It remains to be seen how the state government deals with the issue," a bureaucrat said.
A senior official in the poll panel said the EC had written at least three letters asking the state to send names of election observers.
“As the Bengal government did not respond to the letters, the EC was forced to appoint observers from the state on its own. The EC depends on the states for the deployment of IAS and IPS officers during elections. If a state does not want to send any list, the EC would have no option but to select officers on its own. The Constitution vests the EC with such powers,” the official said.
The EC has made it clear that if the officers don’t attend the briefing, it could initiate steps against them.
“The officer(s) may be informed that unauthorised absence from the Briefing Meeting shall be viewed very seriously by the Commission and may lead to initiation of disciplinary proceeding against the officer(s) concerned,” the letter says.
A bureaucrat in Nabanna said the government brass was shocked that the home secretary had been appointed as an observer in some other part of the country.
“Who will handle the state’s law and order during the elections? Is it possible that the home secretary would work in a different state when his own state votes? Has the EC lost its mind?” the bureaucrat said.
Questions were alsoraised on how the state could be expected to spare the minority affairs secretary and the panchayat secretaryahead of the Assemblyelections as many development projects had been initiated.
Many in the Bengal government also wondered how field officers like the police commissioners of Howrah and Asansol could be sent to other states as observers during elections.