The Election Commission on Friday appointed 12 senior IAS officers of Bengal cadre as electoral roll observers for the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of voters’ list.

The move assumed significance as the order was issued soon after the EC sent three senior officers from Nirvachan Sadan to the office of the Bengal CEO, Manoj Agarwal, to assist him during the SIR.

The 12 special observers will also report to the Bengal CEO.

“It is significant that the EC appointed 12 electoral roll observers to monitor the preparation and revision of the electoral roll and help the DEOs and EROs in taking timely corrective measures. All these measures are being taken after the chief minister recently said that the situation in Bengal could turn turbulent after the draft rolls were published on December 9,” said a senior government official.

According to a notification issued by the EC, Smita Pandey, a 2005-batch IAS officer, would monitor the exercise in Burdwan East and West and Birbhum, while Tanmoy Chakraborty, a 2006-batch IAS officer, would be sent to monitor the SIR in Murshidabad and Malda.

Randhir Kumar, a 2006-batch IAS officer, would monitor the exercise in North 24-Parganas and North Calcutta, while C. Murugan, a 2007-batch IAS officer, would be responsible for monitoring the exercise in South 24-Parganas and South Calcutta. R. Arjun, a 2010-batch IAS officer, would be sent to monitor the exercise in Cooch Behar, Alipuduar and Jalpaiguri.

Two IAS officers — Rajeev Kumar of the 1997 batch and Jagdish Meena of the 2004 batch — would be responsible for overseeing the exercise in Howrah, while Neelam Meena, a 1998-batch IAS officer, would be tasked with the exercise in East and West Midnapore and Jhargram.

The 2001-batch IAS officer, Ashwini Kumar Yadav, would monitor the SIR in North and South Dinajpurs. Niranjan Kumar, a 2007-batch officer, would monitor the exercise in Darjeeling and Kalimpong, while the progress of the SIR in Purulia and Bankura would be monitored by Devi Prasad Karanam, a 2008-batch IAS officer.

Rachna Bhagat, a 2009 batch IAS, would be sent to Nadia and Vishwanath, a 2010-batch IAS officer, would be responsible for the exercise in Hooghly.

The move to deploy so many senior bureaucrats in carrying out the SIR in Bengal has left many in the administration in a state of surprise, as they were not clear why the move was initiated.

Although the EC officially pointed out that observers were deployed as the districts in Bengal were quite large in terms of areas and the number of electors and Assembly segments, and included long international borders.

A section of the officials pointed out that the move was initiated to rule out any kind of loopholes in preparing a clean electoral roll after the SIR.

“The ruling party was up in arms against EC over the SIR from the very beginning. This is the reason why the EC is in no mood to take any chances in preparing an error-free electoral roll. The situation has turned critical after the chief minister warned that the situation could be difficult after the draft lists are published,” said an official.

A section of the officials said that the senior officials were deployed in the districts after complaints were coming up that the ruling party was putting pressure on the DEOs, EROs and BLOs to insert ineligible names in the electoral rolls.