Mackintosh Burn Ltd, a state-owned company under the PWD, wrote to the office of the Bengal chief electoral officer on Friday that the company had no disregard for the EC but would not be able to carry out work of assured minimum facilities (AMF) in polling booths because of “practical considerations”.

The company was pulled up by the Bengal CEO, Manoj Agarwal, after the company refused to take up AMF work even though the PWD had entrusted the company to take it up in July this year.

The CEO warned in his letter that the EC could initiate criminal proceedings against the board of directors of the company for its refusal to take up the job.

“We humbly request that the MBL may please be relieved from this ensuing task and no penal, financial or other adverse actions be initiated against Mackintosh Burn Ltd or its officers or directors, as our inability stems entirely from practical considerations,” the MBL letter dated October 24 reads.

The letter said the company’s infrastructure did not allow it to take up the task of detailed field surveys and holistic assessment of the time-bound tasks of AMF in some 81,000 booths spread across Bengal.

Sources in the CEO’s office said that the poll panel would not move ahead with the issue since the company made it clear that the lack of infrastructure in the company did not allow it to take up the job, and it did not challenge the authority of the EC.

“The task of detailed survey and carrying out AMF to fill the gap of facilities in the booths would have to be taken up... Now, it is the sole responsibility of the PWD to appoint agencies to take up the job and complete those on time,” said
a source.

However, a source pointed out that the MBL was given the job in July this year. “The government did not check with the company whether it was capable of doing the work. If the PWD had tried to find out sooner, alternative agencies could have been hired earlier. It would have saved four valuable months,” he said, adding that time was vital as soon all officials would get busy with the special intensive revision (SIR) of the
electoral rolls.

“In that case, the survey of the booths and identification of gaps in terms of AMF would be a problem. Tenders cannot be floated after election dates are declared,” said the source.