Bengal Chief Secretary appears before Election Commission over compliance lapses

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraborty Chief Secretary appeared before the full bench of Election Commission of India in New to Delhi today as she was summoned over non-compliance over several issues, including lodging FIR against four AEROs and EROs in Baruipur, transfer of three officers, suspension of Basirhat II AERO for conducting illegal hearing and some more.

The state Chief Secretary had to face the ECI Full Bench today and Chief Secretary and she was cautioned on the non-compliance issue and was asked to comply with the issues. Last August, ECI had summoned the then Chief Secretary Manoj Pant to New Delhi over the state government's reluctance to implement the ECI's order to suspend the ERO and AERO of Baruipur East and East Midnapore's Moina and several other cases.

ECI had written to the Chief Secretary on Tuesday, directing the state government to cancel the departmental transfers of three Electoral Rolls. The Chief Secretary was asked to obtain "prior concurrence of the Commission" before issuing such orders in future.


The three officers, who have been transferred by the state government are Asvini Kumar Yadav (IAS) who is Electoral Rolls Observer for Uttar Dinajpur & Dakshin Dinajpur, Randhir Kumar (IAS), who is Electoral Rolls Observer for North 24 Parganas and Kolkata North and Smita Pandey, who is Electoral Rolls observer for Paschim Bardhaman, Purba Bardhaman and Birbhum.

Prior to this, in a letter to West Bengal Chief Secretary Nandini Chakraborty on January 25, the ECI flagged "serious lapses" and "irregularities" in the hearing process at Basirhat AC and directed her to suspend AERO/BDO.

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