Kolkata/New Delhi, March 16 In a move unprecedented in West Bengal's administrative history, the Election Commission removed the state's top bureaucrats and police officials, including the chief secretary and the DGP, in the run-up to the assembly polls.
The decision for the shake-up was taken hours after the announcement of the assembly poll schedule on Sunday.
While the commission's first order, issued late Sunday evening, resulted in the removal of the state's two top bureaucrats, Chief Secretary Nandini Chakravorty and Home Secretary Jagdish Prasad Meena, a subsequent order, dated March 16, removed the state's DGP Peeyush Pandey and Kolkata CP Supratim Sarkar, who were among four top IPS officers in Bengal replaced ahead of the elections.
The commission appointed Dushyant Nariala, an IAS officer of the 1993 batch and additional chief secretary of the state's North Bengal Development department, as the state's chief secretary.
The poll panel ordered the appointment of Sanghamitra Ghosh, a 1997-batch IAS officer and secretary of the Women and Child Development department, as West Bengal's home secretary.
The EC appointed senior IPS officer Siddh Nath Gupta, a 1992 batch IPS officer, as the director general of police, and brought in Ajay Kumar Nand (IPS-1996) as the new commissioner of Kolkata Police. Nand 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.
The poll panel said its 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 communications, signed by commission secretary Sujeet Kr Mishra, said.
“Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, in his press conference on Sunday, had assured that elections in West Bengal would be violence-free and peaceful. In pursuance of this objective, the ECI has transferred senior police officials of West Bengal, including the DGP and the Kolkata Police commissioner,” a senior Election Commission official told