Kolkata, Feb 4 (IANS) The deadline for 15 Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and 10 Indian Police Service (IPS) officers from West Bengal to go to New Delhi to attend the training programme for Election Commission of India (ECI)-appointed central poll observers for all states, is expiring on Wednesday.
This comes amid objections to certain names by the state government and suggesting some alternatives and the ECI sticking to its choice of officers for the job by ignoring the communication.
The two-day training programme, conducted by the ECI in the national Capital, will take place on Thursday and Friday. The 15 IAS and 10 IPS officers from West Bengal, selected by the EC, are expected to reach New Delhi by Wednesday night.
However, at the time the report was filed, there was no indication from the West Bengal Secretariat, Nabanna, whether these bureaucrats and cops would be released or not to attend the training programme in New Delhi.
Last month, the ECI communicated to West Bengal regarding the selection of these officers as central poll observers. However, the West Bengal government vehemently objected to the selection of certain names, especially with regards to the selection of the state Home Secretary, Jagdish Prasad Meena.
“The state government suggested names of some alternative bureaucrats and cops from the state cadre to the Commission. However, till now, no reply from the Commission had reached the state secretariat on whether the ECI had accepted or not the alternative names suggested by the Commission. This practically means the ECI’s first choice of 15 IAS and 10 IPS officers still stands,” said a state secretariat insider.
Trinamool Congress had already described the move by the Commission as unilateral and yet another conspiracy on the part of the ECI acting on the behest of the BJP.
However, ECI had held the state government responsible for this entire fiasco.
Insiders from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) had claimed that the Commission was forced to ultimately take a unilateral decision in selecting these officers, since earlier communiques from the Commission to the state government to send names of bureaucrats and police officers for appointment as central poll observers were conspicuously ignored by the state government.
–IANS
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