On Thursday (20th August), the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government suspended 4 officials for fraud during voter ID registrations.
The development comes after the Election Commission of India (ECI) gave a 7-day deadline to the government to ensure action against the tainted election officers.
Sources told The New Indian Express that a complicance report has been sent to the ECI by the Chief Secretary Manoj Pant.
Although no First Information Report (FIR) has been registered, officials assured to conduct departmental proceedings.
It must be mentioned that Manoj Pant had previously attempted to prevent strict disciplinary actions against the tained officials.
He had claimed, “Such an action could have a demoralising impact not only on the individuals concerned but also on the broader team of officers engaged in electoral responsibilities and other administrative functions.”
ECI directs West Bengal govt to take action against officers who added fake voters to electoral rolls
Earlier this month, the Election Commission of India (ECI) suspended four election officials in West Bengal, who reportedly allowed fake voter applications to be registered by misusing their authority.
Their actions were exposed during a sample checking of voter application forms (Form 6) for routine updates to the electoral roll by the West Bengal Election Commission.
Two Electoral Registration Offices (EROs), namely Debottam Dutta Choudhary and Biplab Sarkar and two Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs), namely Tathagata Mondal and Sudipta Das, were suspended by the ECI with immediate effect.
Besides, the ECI also directed an FIR to be lodged against the casual Data Entry Operator, Surojit Haldar.
The ECI has also ordered disciplinary proceedings against the officers without delay. The Commission said that the actions of the officers amount to criminal misconduct and, therefore, also ordered the filing of FIRs against all four officials.
Later, it gave a 7-day deadline to take action against state election officials accused of adding fake voters to the voter list.