After Poll Body Order, Bengal Suspends 4 Officials, But Doesn't File Cases

The West Bengal government has partly complied with the Election Commission of India's (ECI) directive by suspending four officials- two Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and two Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) of Moyna and Baruipur Purba Assembly Constituencies for alleged voter list malpractices. However, the state government has not lodged FIRs against the officials as mandated by the ECI. The deadline for full compliance was August 21.

On Thursday, state Chief Secretary Manoj Pant updated the Election Commission of India via email on the action taken against the four officials, out of which two are West Bengal Civil Service (WBCS) officers.

Sources in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal confirmed received the intimation in this regard from the state government.

Sources in the state secretariat said that the government is also contemplating initiating a departmental inquiry against the four officials.

In addition, one contractual Data Entry Operator has been relieved of his duty.

This disciplinary action has been taken on the orders of the Election Commission. It may be noted that the state Chief Secretary Manoj Pant met the full bench of the Election Commission in Delhi recently and promised to comply with its directives by August 21.

Serious allegations were made against the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) of Baruipur East, Debottam Dutta Chowdhury, AERO of that centre, Tathagata Mandal, and ERO of Maina Biplob Sarkar and AERO of that centre, Sudipta Das. The name of a data entry operator named Surjit Halder was also on the list. They were accused of tampering with the voter's list. On this allegation, the Election Commission had directed that these five should be suspended as well, and an FIR should be lodged against them.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had criticised the ECI for its directive and accused the poll body of being the "bonded labour of the BJP".

She had also asserted that her government would not take any action against her employees.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)