EC removes West Bengal's top bureaucrats of TMC govt

The Election Commission has removed top officials in the West Bengal administration and police, including the Chief Secretary and the Director General of Police, in an unprecedented move that attracted the ire of Trinamool Congress, whose MPs walked out of the Rajya Sabha for the day in protest.

The EC's decision to induct new officers for the top posts came hours after the announcement of the Assembly poll schedule for West Bengal and four other states and a union territory on Sunday evening.

Separately, it also transferred five Senior Superintendents of Police in Assam and also sought a list of IAS officers who could be appointed as District Electoral Officers. It has also transferred four Superintendents of Police in Tamil Nadu.

In its first order issued on Sunday late evening, it removed West Bengal Chief Secretary Nandini Chakravarty and Home Secretary Jagdish Prasad Meena and in a subsequent order on Monday, it removed the state's DGP Peeyush Pandey and Kolkata CP Supratim Sarkar besides two other senior IPS officers.

Dushyant Nariala, a 1993-batch IAS officer and Additional Chief Secretary of the state's North Bengal Development Department, has been appointed as the new Chief Secretary while Sanghamitra Ghosh, a 1997-batch IAS officer and Secretary of the Women and Child Development department, as the new Home Secretary.

Senior IPS officer Siddh Nath Gupta of 1992 batch has been appointed the new DGP while Ajay Kumar Nand, an IPS officer of 1996 batch, will be the new Commissioner of Kolkata Police. Nand has served as ADG (Counter Insurgency Force) prior to this posting.

The commission also replaced ADG (law and order) Vineet Goyal with Ajay Mukund Ranade (IPS-1995) and appointed Natarajan Ramesh Babu, a senior IPS officer of the 1991 batch, as DG (correctional services), in place of Siddh Nath Gupta, who held that position prior to the transfers.

Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MPs walked out of the House soon after it assembled in the morning after its floor leader Derek O'Brien said they were not disturbing the proceedings but were walking out against what the Chief Election Commissioner is doing.

"In the dead of night, the Chief Secretary and Home Secretary have been removed by the EC. They have all the power to do it. They can also say I am wearing a blue shirt and not a white one," he said.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju objected to the remarks saying, the Opposition party has raised an issue on which the House or the government has nothing to do. "There is no point in raising it. Trinamool Congress and Congress always attack Constitutional authorities and it is not right," he said.

Asked about the decisions, a senior EC official referred to the remarks of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar while announcing the poll schedule on Sunday when he spoke about ensuring that the elections in West Bengal and other places would be violence-free and inducement-free.

In its orders, the EC said the directions are to be implemented with immediate effect, and asked for a report of the joining of all the officers in their respective offices by 3 PM on Monday. "The officers transferred out shall not be posted in any election-related posts till the completion of elections," the EC said.