EC pulls up Gujarat officers for not filing compliance report on transfers

New Delhi, October 22

The Election Commission (EC) has pulled up the Gujarat’s Chief Secretary and Director General of Police (DGP) for failing to file compliance report on transfer of officials ahead of the upcoming Assembly polls in the state.

Sources in the poll panel said the EC has taken a stern view of the lapses and shot off a letter to the Gujarat Chief Secretary on Friday in this regard. They said in the letter, the EC mentioned that despite reminders, the Chief Secretary and the DGP failed to send compliance reports on the transfer and posting of certain category of officials ahead of the polls.

They have now been asked to explain as to why the compliance reports have not been furnished “even after the lapse of stipulated time limit and reminders in the matter”, the sources said quoting the EC’s letter. The letters regarding the transfer and posting of officials were sent to Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, they added.

Himachal Pradesh will go to polls on November 12 and the Gujarat elections date is yet to be announced.

The commission had directed the two state governments to transfer officials posted in their home districts and those who have spent three years in a district in the last four years. It is usual for the poll panel to issue such directions ahead of Lok Sabha and Assembly polls to ensure free and fair elections. The tenure of the Gujarat Assembly will end on February 23, 2023, and the poll authority can hold elections anytime within six months of the expiry of the five-year term of any House.

The commission’s recent order to the Gujarat Government included both police and civil administration officials. The police officials included those of the rank of Inspectors General of Police, Deputy Inspectors General, Commissioners of Police, Superintendents of Police, Deputy Superintendents and Inspectors.

On the civil side were Commissioners, Deputy Commissioners, Collectors, Deputy Collectors, Assistant Divisional Magistrates, Sub-Divisional Magistrates and ‘mamlatdars’. These officials function as returning officers or assistant returning officers during the poll.

As the transfer of hundreds of officials would have been involved, the state government was told to complete the exercise immediately to avoid large-scale dislocation of officers after the announcement of the poll schedule.

In another step putting the state in election mode, the electoral rolls of 20 riot-hit districts, where the EC had ordered a special revision, were published last week.