ECI transfers DEO Kolkata South & ADM Basirhat

Kolkata: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday ordered transfer of District Election Officer (DEO) Kolkata South, Rashmi Kamal and also Additional District Magistrate Basirhat, Dhivya Longanathan.

In its letter to the Chief Secretary of the state, the ECI sought a panel of three eligible IAS officers in respect of each of the posts. These officers will be assigned non-election duties. Kolkata South will go to poll in the seventh phase election on June 1.

The ECI had earlier ordered the transfer of District Magistrates (DMs) of East Midnapore, Jhargram, East Burdwan and Birbhum districts in Bengal while the WBCS Executive Officers’ Association wrote to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Bengal deploring the decision and calling it “discriminatory”.

Among those removed are East Burdwan DM Bidhan Chandra Roy, East Midnapore DM Tanvir Afzal, Birbhum DM Purnendu Kumar Majhi and Jhargram DM Sunil Agarwala. These four DMs are from the West Bengal Civil Service cadre and not Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers. The Commission had removed Bengal Director General of Police Rajeev Kumar.

The ECI last Monday directed the Bengal Chief Secretary for immediate removal of Superintendent of Police (SP), West Midnapore Dhritiman Sarkar to a non-election-related post.

The Commission appointed IPS officer Aashish Maurya as SP Purulia and Azharuddin Khan as SDPO Contai.

The transfer order of Sarkar follows the Sunday order for removal of Avijit Banerjee, SP Purulia, Dibakar Das SDPO, Contai in East Midnapore, Gopal Pathak, officer in-charge (OC) of Bhupatinagar Police Station in East Midnapore and Raju Kundu OC of Patashpur Police Station of East Midnapore. West Midnapore, Purulia and East Midnapore are among the districts that go to polls on May 25 when eight Parliamentary constituencies are going for polls.