Before EC, state to shift officers

PRANESH SARKAR, TT, Calcutta, Dec. 12: The goverment is planning to shift some senior officers to posts where they won't be needed for Assembly poll duty, in what appeared to be an attempt to pre-empt embarrassing unilateral transfers ordered by the Election Commission of India.

Sources said nine officers - five district magistrates, three police superintendents and one police commissioner - were likely to be transferred within a month.

On Thursday, at a meeting with DMs and SPs, the commission had said it would not tolerate malpractice.

A Nabanna official said the majority of these officers were "under the commission's scanner" because of Opposition complaints of partisan behaviour during the roll revision for next year's Assembly elections. There were also allegations of bias and inaction during recent polls.

Nabanna sources said during the meeting with the DMs and the SPs in Calcutta to prepare for the Assembly elections, the full bench of the commission had made it clear it would not tolerate malpractice during the polls and warned several officers on the basis of the complaints.

"Chief election commissioner Nasim Zaidi told the DMs and the SPs that they would be held responsible if there was any breach of election norms. Never before had we heard of officers being warned like this. So we cannot take any risk ahead of the polls," a minister said.

The sources said it would be embarrassing for the government if the commission shunted officers under its scanner and appointed replacements without consulting it.

"This had happened before the Lok Sabha elections last year. One DM and four SPs, against whom complaints of bias had been received, were transferred by the commission unilaterally. The commission appointed their replacements without consulting the government," another Nabanna official said.

A bureaucrat said the government wanted to avoid such a situation by transferring officers under the commission's scanner before the poll panel took over. "Those who will replace these officers will have a clean background and will be of the government's choice," the bureaucrat said.

DMs are the district election officers for the Assembly polls. The elections are held under their guidance. SPs decide the deployment of security forces. The commission has announced that for next year's Assembly elections, it would deploy central forces directly.

"DMs can prevent any party from holding rallies. They usually deploy polling officers and have a say in law-and-order issues. SPs play an important role in identifying sensitive booths," a Nabanna official said.

Other than the nine officers, the government plans to transfer a few others who it thinks "will not be able to act under pressure from the commission to follow the rulebook".

"Any ruling party wants officers of its choice as DMs and SPs," a Trinamul MLA from north Bengal said.