Ahead of the fourth phase of polling, the Election Commission again cracked the whip and removed the district magistrate and superintendent of police of two crucial districts-South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas. The commission also removed six officers in charge and seven inspectors in charge of some districts across the state.
“The commission has instructed the state chief secretary to remove South 24 Parganas district magistrate P.B. Salim and superintendent of police in North 24 Parganas district Tanmoy Roy Chowdhury. Mr Salim will be replaced by Avanindra Singh and Mr Roy Chowdhury by Annappa E,” additional chief electoral officer Dibyendu Sarkar said on Friday.
Mr Singh was posted as additional secretary of school education department while Mr Annappa was serving as the superintendent of Railway Police, Siliguri. Sources in the EC said that the duo were removed following the Opposition’s complaints that they were working at the behest of the ruling party.
Among the six officers in charge of four districts who were removed include one in South 24 Parganas, two in North 24 Parganas, one in Hooghly and two in Coochbehar. Seven inspectors in charge — one in South 24 Parganas, five in North 24 Parganas and one in Howrah district — were also removed. The new officers have been asked to take over their new responsibilities with immediate effect.
The EC had earlier removed several officials, including Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar and a number of DMs and SPs in the state, following complaints by the Opposition parties.
The full bench of the EC led by CEC Nasim Zaidi held a video conference with state EC officials, obervers and senior police officials associated with the fourth phase polls on Monday.
Meanwhile, earlier in the day the Trinamul Congress submitted an application with the Commission urging them to stop Narada CEO Mathew Samuel’s press conference in the city. They pointed out that the subject matter is subjudice and under investigation of the Lok Sabha Ethics Committee so Mr. Samuel should not be allowed to speak on the matter. Additional CEO Dibyendu Sarkar said that their complaint was forwarded to the ECI office in Delhi.
A delegation team of CPI(M) led by Rabin Deb also met CEO Sunil Gupta and alleged that four of their supporters were killed in post poll violence in the state. “I have urged the CEO to make the central force more active in area domination,” Mr. Deb said.
