Lok Sabha polls: Cong writes to Election Commission on issue of transfer of UP officials

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Nirmal Khatri has written to Election Commission expressing concern over what he said was the growing number of transfers being carried out by the state government in the run up to Lok Sabha elections.

"The Lok Sabha elections are (to be held later this year) and in the past four weeks, UP government has transferred 342 officials," Khatri told EC in his letter EC today.

"Mostly, promoted PCS officers have been made district magistrates... Most chief development officers (CDOs), ADMs and others concerned with law and order and (the holding of) elections are being transferred, although transfers before two years of tenure has been prohibited unless there is a significant reason (for the same)," he said.

Alleging that the non-Congress governments in the state had divided officials into camps on the basis of caste, Khatri said that the recent transfers have put a question mark on the holding of free and fair elections.

He further called for a probe into the spate of transfers.