Assembly elections: 2 DMs & 2 SPs get national award

kolkata/balurghat: A day when two district magistrates and two police superintendents from Bengal received national awards on the occasion of National Voters Day (NVD) for their efficiency in conducting the Assembly polls in Bengal held last year, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of the state announced that now voter cards would be delivered directly to the residences of the recipients through speed post.

District magistrate (DM) Howrah Mukta Arya, DM North 24-Parganas Sumit Gupta, SP Birbhum Nagendra Tripathi and SP East Burdwan Kamanasish Sen were awarded at the NVD programme organised by Election Commission of India (ECI) in New Delhi. Sen was posted as SP of Baruipur Police district during the elections. Union minister for Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju was present at the programme as the guest of honour while vice-president Venkaiah Naidu attended virtually.

The EC had reinstated Tripathi as SP Birbhum ahead of the sixth phase polls in the state by removing Meeraj Khalid. He was also appointed on special duty for the polling at Nandigram.

At the state-level programme held at Bhasa Bhavan, three district magistrates received awards from Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi, who was the Chief Guest. DM Nadia Shashank Sethi was felicitated for his role in electoral roll cleansing, DM Bankura K. Radhika Aiyer for her role in voter awareness activities and DM Jalpaiguri Moumita Godara Basu for online registration.

State CEO Aariz Aftab said from now on voter cards would be delivered directly to the home addresses of the recipient through speed post via the Department of Posts. "In case of new voters three things- voter's pledge, personalised letter from the DM and voter's guide will be sent through speed post along with voter card. All voter cards that will be generated in the summary revision procedure will be sent through speed post," CEO said.

The proposal of sending epic cards by speed post was first received from District Election Officer (DEO), south Kolkata Avanindra Singh.

Chief Secretary lauded the CEO office and the entire election machinery for ensuring high percentage voting in Bengal that most other states where the overall vote percentage is around 55 per cent. In the 2021 Assembly elections the vote percentage in Bengal was 82 per cent, far ahead of major states like Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. Meanwhile, about 20 new voters were handed over the EPICs by the South Dinajpur district administration.