Kolkata, Feb 13 The Election Commission of India (ECI), on Friday, noticed that in the list of 8,505 Group-B officials sent by the West Bengal government for inclusion in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise in the state, 500 are already operating as assistant electoral registration officers (AEROs) in the voter revision exercise.
An insider from the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO)'s Office, said that the main idea behind getting the names of these 8,505 Group-B officers from the state government was to include them in the voter revision exercise as micro-observers.
"However, since 500 officers mentioned in the 8,506 officers provided by the state government are already operating as AEROs, there is no logic behind appointing them as micro-observers in the voter revision exercise, considering the nature of the assignments of the micro-observers is different from that of electoral registration officers (EROs) and AEROs," the CEO's office insider added.
At the same time, the CEO's office insider said that with the deadline for completion of the hearing sessions regarding the SIR expiring on Saturday, the Commission is yet to receive detailed background information about these 8,505 Group-B officers, including their current pay bands, from the state government or the state government departments to which these officers are attached.
The Commission had sought the background details of these officers following information received by the CEO's office that all the 8,505 officers in the list furnished by the state government were in the Group-B category.
There is also information that the name of a retired state government officer had also been included in the list.
Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, had also become vocal on this issue and claimed that in the electoral voter list, only the names of those officers and employees have been included, who are extremely close confidants of the ruling Trinamool Congress.
"This is nothing short of a sinister plot by the ruling dispensation to rig the polls through backdoor influence. How can we trust the process when loyalists are being deployed like pawns without any transparency? I urged the ECI to look into the matter and take necessary steps," LoP Adhikari said.
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