Ahead of Assembly polls in five States —West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Puducherry due next year, the Election Commission (EC) has issued an advisory saying that no officer connected directly with election duties should be allowed to continue in the respective district if he/she is posted in her/his home district.
The Commission wrote to the chief secretaries and chief electoral officers of these five states regarding the transfer and posting officers associated with conducting the elections.
According to the EC, the decision follows the consistent policy of the Commission that officers directly connected with conduct of elections in poll-bound State/Union Territory are not posted in their home districts or places where they have served for considerably long periods.
The terms of the Assemblies in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Puducherry and Assam will end on May 24, 2021, June 1, 2021, May 30, 2021, June 8, 2021 and May 31, 2021 respectively.
Meanwhile the EC has begun poll preparation for Assembly elections in April-May next year. While senior officials of the poll body are already in West Bengal, a team would visit Tamil Nadu next week.
Deputy election commissioner Sudip Jain is already in Kolkata and EC secretary general Umesh Sinha and deputy election commissioner Ashish Kundra will leave for Chennai next week.
The poll-bound States are likely to see a heated battle, with BJP campaigning in full swing in Bengal. In Tamil Nadu, the latest entrant into the political fray is actor Rajinikanth and Kamal Hasan for the upcoming polls.
“Officials who completed three years in the respective district during the last four years or would be completing three years on or before May 31, 2021 would also be not allowed to continue in the same district,” the EC said in its advisory.
The Commission made clear that officers/officials against whom it had recommended disciplinary action in the past, especially those who had been charged for any lapse in any election or election related work should not be assigned any election related duty. Similarly, no officer/official against whom criminal case was pending in any court of law should be associated with or deployed on election related duty.
Further, any officer, who is due to retire within the coming six months, should not be associated with any election related duty. The officers posted on recommendation of the Commission during the Lok Sabha elections 2019 may be exempted from this transfer policy.
In case of any need for any transfer of any official due to extra ordinary reasons, prior approval of the commission was mandatory, the EC order said.
The instructions would also be applicable to police officers in different ranks who would be responsible for security arrangements or deployment of police forces in the districts at election time. Police officials posted in functional departments like computerisation, special branch, training and related wings would not be covered under the instructions but steps should be taken to ensure that officers in the rank of police sub-inspectors and above were not posted in their home district.