West Bengal govt sends alternative list of IAS, IPS officers to ECI

The West Bengal government on Thursday sent the names of nine IAS officers and eight IPS officers to the Election Commission of India (ECI) as alternatives to the list of 15 IAS and 10 IPS officers from the state named by the poll panel to function as central observers in poll-bound states.

The state government has requested the ECI that the alternative nine IAS officers be included in the list instead of the ones named by the poll panel.

The move comes a day after the ECI named state home secretary JP Meena and commissioner of police-Howrah Praveen Kumar Tripathy, among others, as central observers. Despite three reminders from December, the state reportedly had not sent the list of central observers.


It is learnt that DGP Rajeev Kumar has communicated to CEO Manoj Kumar Agarwal that Bharat Lal Meena and Rishikesh Meena, two IPS officers, will not be able to join due to medical reasons.

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

Meanwhile, the state government has replied to the ECI’s letter regarding the transfer of three officers after the poll panel on Tuesday directed the West Bengal government to cancel their transfer, citing lack of “prior concurrence”.

The three officials who were transferred were Ashwini Kumar Yadav, Randhir Kumar and Smita Pandey. The state government has said that these three officers have been given less important responsibilities. “This has been done in order to facilitate them to focus on their work related to the SIR,” sources said.