A bureaucrat from Uttar Pradesh serving as an observer for a district in the North Bengal was reprimanded and sent back to his home state for failing to say how many polling booths were there in his area.
Anurag Yadav was appointed the observer for Cooch Behar South on March 16 and he joined two days later. But yesterday, at a meeting with Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, he failed to answer questions.
The three-hour virtual meeting was attended by Bengal's police chief, Chief Secretary, observers, and various other state officials.
Sources in the poll body said the meeting started around 11 am for a review of the poll-preparedness in the state.
Around 12:30 pm, Kumar asked Yadav for details regarding the total number of polling booths located within his assembly constituency. He was unable to provide this information. It took a while to gather the relevant details.
An abrupt silence fell when the CEC told Yadav, "You may go back home".
Kumar added that if an officer, despite having spent nearly 20 days in the assembly constituency, is still unable to provide information regarding the number of polling stations, it raises serious questions about his competence and credibility.
Reports claimed that when the Chief Election Commissioner reprimanded him, Yadav retorted, "You cannot treat me this way. I have dedicated 25 years to this service. You cannot speak to me like that".
Commission sources, however, confirmed that he was immediately relieved of his duties as an observer and instructed to return.
Yadav, an IAS officer of the 2000 batch from the UP cadre, currently holds the rank of Principal Secretary.
On March 29, - days after his appointment as an election observer-the Uttar Pradesh government had transferred him to the Department of Social Welfare and Sainik Welfare (Ex-Servicemen Welfare).
Before the transfer, he was serving as the Principal Secretary for the Department of Information and Electronics.
During his tenure, the Principal Secretary of the IT Department-a department under Yadav - was involved in a controversial investment agreement under which a company proposed to invest Rs 25,000 crore in Uttar Pradesh, despite its total assets amounting to less than Rs 50 crore.
The company, "AI Puch". claimed it would bring an investment of Rs 25,000 crore to the state. When Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath shared this agreement on social media, it went viral.
But when it was revealed that AI Puch's total assets did not even reach Rs 50 crore -raising questions as to how it could possibly undertake such a massive investment -"Invest UP" , annulled the agreement.
Following the controversy, the UP government transferred nine IAS officers, including Anurag Yadav.
