ECI Directs Bengal Govt To File Firs Against Electoral Officers By Feb 17

(MENAFN- IANS) Kolkata, Feb 14 (IANS) The Election Commission of India (ECI) has set a deadline for the West Bengal government to register FIRs against electoral officers against whom the Commission has procured reasonable evidence of involvement in the inclusion of fake voters in the electoral rolls during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state.

An insider from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, said that a fresh communication in this regard was sent by the Commission to the state secretariat on Saturday evening, setting February 17 (Tuesday) as the deadline for registering FIRs against these errant electoral officers.

“The ECI noted that despite repeated reminders to register FIRs against these four errant electoral officers, the state government had been lackadaisical in initiating action. Therefore, the Commission decided to fix a deadline for registering FIRs against them,” the CEO office insider said.

Two of the four officers against whom FIRs have been directed to be registered are the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) of Baruipur East Assembly constituency in South 24 Parganas district, Debottam Dutta Chowdhury, and the Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO) of the same constituency, Tathagata Mandal.

The other two officers are the ERO of Moyna Assembly constituency in East Midnapore district, Biplob Sarkar, and the AERO of the same constituency, Sudipta Das.

It may be recalled that in August last year, the ECI headquarters in New Delhi had directed the West Bengal government to suspend these four electoral officers and register FIRs against them.

However, the state government only partially implemented the directive. While the four officers were suspended, FIRs were not registered against them. In addition, one contractual data entry operator was also relieved of his duties.

In January this year, the ECI again directed the District Magistrates of South 24 Parganas and East Midnapore districts to register FIRs against these four electoral officers.

The officers were accused of tampering with the electoral rolls. Based on these allegations, the ECI had directed that the officers be suspended and FIRs be lodged against them.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had criticised the ECI's directive at the time and accused the poll body of acting as a“bonded labour of the BJP”. She had also stated that her government would not take action against its employees.

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