EC directs Bengal govt to suspend 4 election officers, file FIR against them

Kolkata, Aug 5 The Election Commission of India (ECI), on Tuesday, directed the West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Pant to suspend four election officials posted with the two Assembly constituencies in two districts of West Bengal for their involvement in wrongful addition of names in the electoral rolls of these two seats.

These four officers are Debottam Dutta, the electoral returning officer (ERO) and Tathagata Mondal, assistant electoral returning officer (AERO) of the Baruipur (Purba) Assembly constituency in South 24 Parganas district, and Biplab Sarkar, ERO and Sudipta Das, AERO of the Moyna Assembly constituency in East Midnapore district.

In addition to that, the commission has also directed the Chief Secretary to register an FIR against one data entry operator, Surojit Halder.

Debottam Dutta and Biplab Sarkar are West Bengal Civil Service (executive) officers.

"The Commission further directs that strict compliance with the above instructions shall be ensured and an action-taken report sent to the Commission at the earliest," the communique from the ECI to the Chief Secretary said.

The office of the west Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal, first conducted a thorough probe against these two EROs, two AEROs, and one data entry operator, following complaints received against them on their involvement in the wrongful addition of names in the electoral rolls of these two constituencies.

Thereafter, the office of the CEO also forwarded a report on their findings to the commission, where it was reported that the said officers had not only failed in performing duties as EROs and AEROs while disposing of the applications but also violated the policy of data security while sharing their login credentials of the election registration database with unauthorised persons.

If proven guilty, the punishment of the erring individuals will be imprisonment for a term of at least three months, but it might extend to two years, and with a fine, the CEO has reminded the Chief Secretary in the communique.

--IANS

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