Patna (Bihar) [India], February 16 : Bihar Minister of Health Mangal Pandey reacted to the Election Commission of India's (ECI) decision to suspend seven officials in West Bengal, alleging that they were acting under political influence instead of adhering to poll guidelines.
Speaking to the reporters here, Pandey said, "Certainly, the officials of the West Bengal government appear to be working more as officials of Mamata Banerjee and the TMC. This is a signal and a message to those officials who, instead of following the Election Commission's directives, follow the orders and instructions of the TMC, Abhishek, and Mamata Banerjee."
He asserted that elections must be conducted in a fair and transparent manner to maintain public confidence.
"Elections should be fair and transparent. Work should be done with the trust and confidence of all voters. The West Bengal government and its officials are not cooperating in this task, and I believe the Election Commission has taken action against these officials as a result. In the future, the officials of the West Bengal government should be careful. Because elections should be transparent and should be one in which the public has complete confidence," he said.
Earlier, the Election Commission of India (ECI) suspended seven officials in West Bengal, directing the Chief Secretary to initiate disciplinary proceedings against them for "serious misconduct, dereliction of duty, and misuse of statutory powers in connection with the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process.
The suspended officials include: i) Dr Sefaur Rahaman, Assistant Director of the Agriculture Department and Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO) for 56-Samserganj Assembly Constituency; ii) Nitish Das, Revenue Officer, Farakka and AERO for 55-Farakka Assembly Constituency; iii) Dalia Ray Choudhury, Women Development Officer, Maynaguri Development Block and AERO for 16-Maynaguri Assembly Constituency; iv) Sk. Murshid Alam, ADA, Suti Block and AERO for 57-Suti Assembly Constituency; v & vi) Satyajit Das, Joint Block Development Officer (BDO) and Joydeep Kundu, FEO, both AEROs of 139-Canning Purbo Assembly Constituency; and vii) Debashis Biswas, Jt BDO and AERO 229-Debra Assembly Constituency.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor