ECI names West Bengal officials as central observers, warns of action for missing election briefing

Kolkata: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has named state home secretary JP Meena and commissioner of police-Howrah Praveen Kumar Tripathy as the central observers in the list of 25 IAS and IPS officers from West Bengal who have been called for a briefing meeting in February regarding the upcoming elections in five states.

The central observers from these states — Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal — have been called for briefing by ECI on February 5 and 6 in New Delhi.

ECI warned of disciplinary proceedings against officers for any unauthorized absence from the meeting.


ECI said that despite three reminders to the West Bengal government, they had not received any list of IAS and IPS officers from the 1996 to 2016 batches as sought for the role of nodal officers for the coming Assembly elections.

HEARING NOTICES

Meanwhile, 1.30 crore hearing notices have been distributed amid the ongoing hearing phase in West Bengal. According to ECI sources, hearings for approximately 90 lakh people have already been completed. On an average, hearings are being conducted for 7-8 lakh people every day.

According to the state CEO’s office sources, the hearing process will be completed by February 7. Micro-observers are beginning to conduct super-checking of the documents uploaded by the EROs during the hearing process.

“If any discrepancies are found in the documents, they are giving their comments,” sources said.

However, the complete responsibility for inclusion or removal of names from the voters’ list remains with the EROs.