Bengal chief electoral officer Manoj Agarwal has pulled up Mackintosh Burn Ltd, a state-owned civil engineering and construction company that functions under the public works department, for its refusal to undertake projects commissioned by the poll panel under the assured minimum facilities (AMF) in polling booths.

In a letter to the managing director of the company, Agarwal warned the board of directors of criminal proceedings in case the company refused to execute work related to AMF in booths ahead of next year’s Assembly polls.

The letter dated October 17, sources said, assumed significance as this is the first time the Election Commission has taken such a tough stand against a state government company to make it clear that it would not leave any stone unturned to prevent misuse of public funds in the name
of AMF.

Mackintosh Burn had been assigned the task to undertake a survey, along with the polling officials in the districts, in each of the one lakh polling stations across the state.

Agarwal’s letter to the Makintosh Burn MD comes soon after he sent a missive to state chief secretary Manoj Pant on October 13 asking him to furnish the details of jobs of permament nature carried out under the AMF programme in the elections of 2019 (Lok Sabha), 2021 (Assembly) and 2024 (Lok Sabha).

Sources said that initially, Mackintosh Burn had agreed to execute the work in July this year. In September this year, the company was asked to commence the work
immediately.

But the company expressed its inability to execute the work on October 13, the day the Bengal CEO asked the chief secretary to furnish details of the work carried out in the previous three elections.

“The timing is interesting. On a day the CEO asked the chief secretary for the details of the work under the AMF carried out in the past three elections held in Bengal, the company responsible for carrying out the work expressed its inability to execute the job,” said a source.

A section of the bureaucrats said that the company’s refusal to the poll panel had raised eyebrows in administrative and political circles in the backdrop of many in the EC alleging that public money misused in the past few elections in the state under the guise of jobs under the AMF.

“Before each election, the state spent more than ₹500 to ₹600 crore to install the assured minimum facilities in polling booths, which are very basic in nature. Jobs include the construction of ramps, repairing toilets and illuminating the booth. As these are permanent fixtures, it is expected that these facilities should last for a few elections because the same booths are used in consecutive polls,” said
a bureaucrat.

“If the state had already spent more than ₹1,500 crore for this purpose since 2019 elections, this year the expenditure should be minimum. The refusal of the company to survey what jobs are left as well as do them to fill the gaps is interesting,” the bureaucrat added.

The EC has taken the refusal of the company seriously.

“As per the mandate of Section 159 (iii) and other existing provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, you are hereby directed to ensure execution of the allotted works without any further delay,” CEO Agarwal wrote to the company MD on October 17.

The CEO said that the EC could initiate several actions against the board of directors of the company as well as the company in case it refused to comply with the order.

Criminal proceedings against Board of Directors under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) could be initiated in case the company refused to comply with the EC order, the CEO wrote.

Moreover, the CEO’s letter stated that suitable action could be initiated against the officers of the company under the Representation of the People Act, 1951.

Also, if the company persisted in its refusal to carry out the work, appropriate action against it could be initiated, which might include financial penalty as well as blacklisting it to prevent its participation in government tenders across the country.

Mackintosh Burn, founded in 1834 by James Mackintosh, is a state government enterprise based in Calcutta and one of India’s oldest construction firms.