All the officials have been asked to hand over the charge to their immediate junior.(Representational)
The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday transferred 8 District Magistrates (DM) and 12 Superintendent of Police (SP) in five states, namely Assam, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh.
The decision was taken as part of the regular review by the Commission during a meeting chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar along with Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, stated an official release.
ECI has issued transfer orders for District Magistrates (DM), Superintendent of Police (SP) and DIG/ IG rank officers in five states.
In Assam, the Election Commission of India has issued a transfer order for the DM of Udalgiri. In Bihar, the DM and SP of the Bhojpur district as well as the DM and SP of the Nawada district have been issued a transfer order.
In Jharkhand, the Election Commission has issued transfer orders for SP Deoghar and has directed to fill up vacant posts of SP(Rural) Ranchi, DIG Palamu, IG Dumka and send a panel of officials.
The DM of Cuttack and Jagatsinghpur, the SP of Angul, Behrampur, Khurda and Rourkela, and also the DCP Cuttack and IG Central, have been issued transfer orders in Odisha.
In Andhra Pradesh, ECI has issued transfer orders for the DM of Krishna, Ananthpuramu, and Tirupati districts. The SPs of Prakasham, Palnadu, Chittoor, Anathpuramu and Nellore districts as well as IGP Guntur Range have also been issued the transfer order.
Under the directive, all the transferred officials have been asked to hand over the charge to their immediate junior officer and these officers will not be assigned any election duty till completion of the General Elections 2024, added the official release.
The respective state governments have been directed to send a panel of names of IAS and IPS officers to the Commission.
The election for 543 Lok Sabha seats across the country will be held in seven phases starting April 19. Nearly 97 crore voters are eligible to cast votes in the general election. The counting of votes will take place on June 4.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)