Bengal officers removed from poll duty appointed as OSDs
Kolkata, April 9 (IANS) Five of the eight officers who were removed from poll duties by the West Bengal government on orders of the Election Commission have been appointed as officers on special duty (OSD), an poll official said Wednesday.
Two officials were allotted the posts of superintendent, CID.
The Election Commission Monday ordered transfer of eight officials including five district police chiefs and one district magistrate from their posts.
Alokesh Prasad Roy (former returning officer from Mathurapur parliamentary constituency), Sanjay Bansal (former district magistrate of North 24 Parganas) and Arindam Dutta (former additional district magistrate West Midnapore) have been posted as OSD home department.
Sayyed M.H. Mirza and R.K. Yadav, former police chiefs of Burdwan and Malda respectively have been allotted the posts of OSD Police Directorate.
"We have received a transfer order from the state government in compliance with the Commission's orders April 7," chief electoral officer Sunil Gupta told reporters here while briefing about the appointments.
Bharati Ghosh and Humayun Kabir, who were removed from the posts of superintendents of police, Midnapore and Murshidabad respectively, have been appointed as as superintendents, CID.
As per the orders of the Commission,Omkar Singh Meena has been posted in place of Bansal as district magistrate of North 24 Parganas.
In other changes, Alok Rajoria, the SP of Birbhum has been shifted to the vacant post of SP of Jhargram police district.
"Sheesh Ram Jhajharia will be posted as SP Midnapore district in place of Ghosh, and Sayyed Waqar Raza will be SP Murshidabad in place of Kabir," said Gupta.
Miraz Khalid replaces Mirza as SP Burdwan while Rashid Munir Khan is the new Birbhum SP in place of Rajoria and B. Kumar takes over as SP Malda in place of Yadav.
"Kaushik Bhattacharya has been appointed as returning officer (RO) from Mathurapur parliamentary constituency in place of Roy.
"ADM West Midnapore Dutta will be replaced by Vaibhav Srivastava," he said.
Meanwhile, as many as 78 candidates are contesting in the second phase of polls in Bengal while 91 have filed nominations for the third phase.
"There have been no withdrawals of candidature in the second phase," he said.
The progressive total of cash seized by the Income Tax department stands at Rs. 4.88 crore while the total incidents related to political rivalry is 305 since the March 5 announcement of the polls.
The BJP has lodged a complaint with the Commission against the Trinamool Congress candidate from Arambagh citing irregularities of her candidature as a Scheduled Caste candidate.