Kolkata: Uncertainty is looming over the transfer of several bureaucrats and police officers in West Bengal, ordered just around an hour before the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the two-phase polling dates in the state Sunday afternoon.
Uncertainty is looming because the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) has been enforced in the state since the announcement of the polling dates, barring the West Bengal government from taking any administrative decision without the ECI’s permission.
In this case, although the transfer of 11 Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers and 109 West Bengal Civil Service (W.B.C.S.) officers was ordered before the announcement of the polling date by ECI and the enforcement of the MCC, certain legal complexities might act as a barrier to implementing the transfer of some of these bureaucrats and police officers.
“If the transfer is ordered and the transferred officers join their new posting before the MCC is enforced, then there would be no problem. But for officers who had not reported for their new posting before the MCC was enforced, in that case, the state government would not be able to implement the transfer without the concurrence of the ECI,” explained an insider from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal.
According to him, the rules on this count are very clear. “First, the state government will not be arbitrarily able to transfer any officer involved in the electoral process. In case the state government feels the necessity of transferring any official for administrative purposes, they would have to seek the concurrence of the ECI in the matter first. All transfer-related matters are the Commission’s prerogative now, and it will continue till the time the MCC is in force,” the CEO’s office insider said.
The polls for West Bengal this time will be in two phases April 23 and April 29. In the first phase, there will be polling in 152 Assembly constituencies, and in the second phase, there will be polls for the remaining 142 constituencies.
Meanwhile, in an unprecedented development Sunday night, the ECI had ordered the transfers of the West Bengal Chief Secretary, Nandini Chakraborty, and the State Home Secretary, Jagdish Prasad Meena, and also ordered that both will not be involved in any kind of election-related duty.
While Dushyant Nariala replaces Chakraborty, Shanghamitra Ghosh replaces Meena.
