JOIN USElection Commission's Special Observers to have the final say in security plans in poll-bound states
The Election Commission has further empowered the Special General Observers and the Special Police Observers appointed by it in the poll-bound states, entrusting them with the new responsibility of vetting and, if necessary, modifying deployment of police and paramilitary personnel.
The EC on Wednesday sent out a communiqué to the Chief Electoral Officers of all the states and the union territories. The commission made it clear that the Special General Observers and the Special Police Observers appointed by it ahead of any elections in any state would have the final say on the deployment of security forces ahead of the polling as well as the on the day of polling and the day of counting.
The poll-panel made the move just ahead of the forthcoming assembly polls in the four states – West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam, and the Union Territory of Puducherry.
The Commission had on February 8 last ordered that the election security plan, including the randomization and deployment of the forces, in any poll-bound state would be finalized by a committee comprising the Chief Electoral Officer, the nodal officer of the state police and the state coordinator of the central paramilitary forces.
The new communiqué issued by the EC on Wednesday however gave its Special General Observers and Police Observers power to vet and, if necessary, modify the deployment plans prepared for the respective states. The deployment plan jointly prepared by the District Election Officers and the Superintendents of Police in the districts would be vetted and, if necessary, modified by the senior-most general and police observers, the EC added in its letter to the Chief Electoral Officers in the states.
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Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora, noted that the observers would have (an) additional role in the randomization of forces and their deployment during the forthcoming elections. He was speaking during a briefing organized by EC for the observers appointed by it for the coming polls in the four states and the Union Territory of Puducherry. More than 1650 observers participated in the briefing – either physically or virtually from more than 120 remote locations.
The EC appointed officers from the Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police Service, Indian Revenue Service and other central services as General, Police and Expenditure Observers. Some retired officers have been appointed as Special General Observers and Special Police Observers.
The deployment of the security forces during the elections have been a sensitive issue, particularly in West Bengal, where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been demanding central paramilitary forces should be engaged in all the polling stations to pre-empt any violent bid by the Trinamool Congress led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The EC appointed the retired IAS officer and former Bihar Chief Electoral Officer, Ajay Nayak, as the Special General Observer for West Bengal. It also appointed retired IPS officers Vivek Dube and M K Das as Special Police Observer for the State.
Banerjee has already criticized the EC for re-appointing Dube as the Special Police Observer for West Bengal, stating that everyone knew what he had been doing during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls when he had been assigned the same job in the state by the poll panel.