Rare precedence: Three women DEOs set to supervise elections in third phase

Kolkata: The third phase elections in 31 Assembly constituencies in Bengal on Tuesday will witness a rare precedence with all the three District Election Officers (DEOs) being women.

The three districts– parts of South 24-Parganas, Howrah and Hooghly— that are going to elections on Tuesday have a total of 78,52,425 electorates and 10,871 polling stations.

Antara Acharya is the DEO of South 24-Parganas, while Mukta Arya is of Howrah. Deepap Priya P is in-charge of Hooghly district. Acharya, who happens to be the senior among the three, cleared the UPSC civil service exam in 2006 and was first posted as the Sub-Divisional Officer in Serampore.

Following this, she served as Additional District Magistrate (ADM) of Durgapur, ADM Asansol and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Asansol – Durgapur Development Authority.

Then, she became the District Magistrate of East Midnapore and later the DM of North 24-Parganas.

Acharya was appointed as the CEO of Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority. She was posted as the DM of South 24-Parganas in February, a few days before the announcement of election dates.

Arya, who hails from Andhra Pradesh, had joined the administrative service in 2008.

She was appointed the DM of Bankura district just before the Lok Sabha elections in Bengal. She was appointed the DM of Howrah in November last year.

Deepap Priya P—the junior among the three— is an IAS of 2011 batch. She was given the charge of Additional DM of North 24-Parganas during the 2016 Assembly elections. She had served as the DM of South Dinajpur and Darjeeling before being assigned the charge of DM Hooghly in February this year.

Among the 31 ACs, 16 ACs—including Basanti (SC), Kultali (SC), Kulpi, Raidighi, Mandirbazar (SC), Jaynagar (SC), Baruipur Purba (SC), Canning Paschim (SC), Canning Purba, Baruipur Paschim, Magrahat Purba (SC), Magrahat Paschim, Diamond Harbour, Falta, Satgachia and Bishnupur (SC)—are in South 24-Parganas, 7 ACs comprising Uluberia Uttar (SC), Uluberia Dakshin, Shyampur, Bagnan, Amta, Udaynarayanpur and Jagatballavpur are in Howrah and 8 ACs of Jangipara, Haripal, Dhanekhali (SC), Tarakeshwar, Pursurah, Arambag (SC), Goghat (SC) and Khanakul are in Hooghly.