ECI to send 3 police observers & three general observers to 3 North Bengal dists

Besides police observers, three general observers will also be sent to the state for phase I elections

Pradip Chatterjee, MP, 23 Mar 2024, Kolkata: The Election Commission of India (ECI) is going to send three senior IPS officers from different states as the police observers for the phase I Lok Sabha elections in Bengal during which three districts in North Bengal - Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and Cooch Behar will go to poll. 

According to sources, besides police observers, three general observers will also be sent to the state for phase I elections. It was learnt that senior IPS Kumar Biswajit who holds DG rank in Andhra Pradesh will be the police observer for Cooch Behar. 

Senior IPS Chakkirala Sambasiva Rao, Haryana cadre officer will be the police observer for Jalpaiguri. Senior officer Punit Rastogi who is the Inspector General of Border Security Force (BSF) will become the police observer for Alipurduar. 

Abhishek Ravi Kumar Surpur, a senior IAS officer in Rajasthan, will be sent to Cooch Behar as general observer while Sudhanshu Mohan Shayamal will become the general observer for Jalpaiguri. Shayamal is an IAS officer in Odisha cadre. Patila Sivnagauri will be the general observer for Alipurduar. Sivnagauri is Karnataka cadre officer. 

Meanwhile, the ECI on Thursday 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. 

Two days back, the Commission had removed Bengal Director General of Police Rajeev Kumar. Trinamool Congress (TMC) accused the poll panel of bias. “Modi-appointed Election Commission changed West Bengal’s DGP 2 times in 24 hours. And now this. Transfers, use of Central Forces, ED, CBI, IT & every trick in the book being used. No matter what they do – the zamindars of BJP sitting in Delhi will get a befitting answer from Bengal in June,” Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale had posted on X. 

https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/eci-to-send-3-police-observers-three-general-observers-to-3-north-bengal-dists-557028