NEW DELHI/KOLKATA: A day after it substituted Bengal chief secretary and principal secretary (dwelling) with its personal decisions, EC Monday changed the DGP and Kolkata Police commissioner, amongst others. Hours after asserting the meeting ballot schedule for Bengal together with these of three different states and a UT, the ballot panel late Sunday night time shunted out Bengal chief secretary Nandini Chakravorty, changing her with 1993-batch IAS officer Dushyant Nariala. Principal secretary (dwelling) Jagdish Prasad Meena was changed with 1997-batch IAS officer Sanghamitra Ghosh. Chakravorty took over as chief secretary on Jan 1 and was the primary lady appointed to the put up in WB. She was additionally the state’s first lady dwelling secretary. That is the primary time WB’s prime bureaucrat has been modified forward of an election. On Monday, EC ordered one other reshuffle, shunting out DGP Peeyush Pandey and changing him with 1992- batch IPS officer Siddh Nath Gupta. Kolkata Police commissioner Supratim Sarkar was changed by Ajay Kumar Nand, a 1996-batch IPS officer. EC’s overriding powers to shift officers instantly engaged within the conduct of polls stem from Article 324 of the Structure, which locations your complete election equipment in a poll-going state or UT underneath its “superintendence, course and management”. The 2021 meeting and 2024 LS polls in Bengal additionally noticed transfers of the DGP and senior officers recognized as “too near the celebration in workplace”.
“CEC Gyanesh Kumar had on the EC presser Sunday assured that elections in Bengal could be violence-free and peaceable. In pursuance of this goal, EC appointed/ transferred senior police officers, together with the DGP and Kolkata Police commissioner,” an EC official instructed TOI. Sources indicated extra transfers on the district stage within the days to return, to be finished in session with Bengal particular observer N Okay Mishra.Additionally making a change within the essential put up of ADG and IGP (regulation and order) — with a direct position in curbing political clashes and violence in addition to guaranteeing even handed deployment of safety forces for ballot safety — Election Fee changed incumbent Vineet Goyal with 1995-batch IPS officer Ajay Mukund Ranade. Natarajan Ramesh Babu, a 1991-batch IPS officer, was ordered to be posted as DG correctional providers. In its orders, EC made it clear that these officers have been barred from all work associated to the Bengal elections. Modifications within the police setup throughout an election season usually are not unprecedented. Earlier than the 2019 LS polls, the fee had changed Anuj Sharma with Rajesh Kumar as Kolkata Police commissioner. Because the 2016 meeting polls, Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has introduced again transferred officers to their earlier posts after the elections have been over.
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