EC transfers several top officials, appoints special observers

The Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday issued transfer orders for top officials in five States — Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. It also appointed special observers in West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar, which have a population of over seven crore.

Both steps have been taken to ensure a level playing field during the election.

The decision on the transfers was taken as part of the regular review during a meeting chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, the EC said in a statement.

The officials transferred include the District Magistrate of Udaigiri, Assam; DMs and SPs of Bhojpur and Nawada districts, Bihar; SP, Deoghar, Jharkhand; DMs of Cuttack and Jagatsinghpur, SPs of Angul, Behrampur, Khurda and Rourkela, DCP, Cuttack and IG, Central, Odisha; DMs of Krishna, Ananthpuramu and Tirupati districts, SPs of Prakasham, Palnadu, Chittoor, Anathpuramu, Nellore districts and IGP Guntur Range, Andhra Pradesh.

“Under the directive, all the transferred officials have been asked to hand over charge to their immediate junior officer and these officers will not be assigned any election duty till the completion of the elections. The respective State governments have been directed to send a panel of names of IAS and IPS officers to the Commission,” it said.

The special observers have also been deployed in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha where simultaneous elections to the State Assemblies are also being held. Apart from this, special expenditure observers have also been deployed in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha, it said.