The Election Commission of India (EC) has written to the Gujarat Chief Secretary and its police chief demanding an explanation over why it has not received compliance reports regarding the transfer of officials directly connected with the conduct of the soon-to-be held Assembly Elections in the State.
According to norms, officers directly connected with the conducting of elections cannot be posted in their home districts or places where they have served for a considerably long period during elections.
The EC had, on August 1, written to the Chief Secretary and Chief Electoral Officer of poll-bound Gujarat over the issue on August 1 and asked for a compliance report by September 30.
It had then sent a reminder for the urgent furnishing of the compliance report on October 19 but to no avail. On Friday, the EC demanded immediate compliance and the furnishing of reports in this respect from the Chief Secretary and Director General of Police (DGP). The Commission also demanded that they explain the circumstances as to why the compliance reports have not been furnished so far even after the lapse of the stipulated time limit despite a reminder.
In the case of administrative officials posted in revenue districts, these instructions, according to guidelines, cover officers of all ranks across the administrative hierarchy allotted specific election duties through roles including District Election Officers (DEOs) and Returning Officers among others.
For police officers, the instructions apply to individuals currently occupying posts right from the Inspector General-level to Police Sub-Inspectors.
The police officials posted in functional departments like computerisation, the intelligence-gathering special branch, training among others, however, are exempt.
On August 1, the EC wrote to the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Chief Secretaries and Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) stating that no officer connected directly with elections can be allowed to continue in their present revenue district of posting.
This, the EC stated, would include officers who happened to be posted in their home district, had completed three years in a district during the last four years or would be completing three years on, or before, January 31, 2023 in the case of Himachal Pradesh and February 28, 2023 in case of Gujarat.