Kolkata, February 18 – The announcement by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, stating that the seven Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) who had been suspended by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on charges of dereliction of duty would be utilized in state administrative duties other than electoral assignments, is being viewed by the poll panel as a partial and negligible implementation of the suspension.
Sources in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal, explained that besides the suspension of the seven AEROs, the Commission had also directed the West Bengal government to initiate departmental proceedings against these seven electoral officers.
"Now the question for the commission is how the state government would effectively carry out a departmental inquiry when the higher administrative authority in the state is interpreting the suspension as simply shifting them from electoral assignments to other administrative assignments. Therefore, the Commission feels that the suspension of the seven AEROs has not been implemented in the true spirit, at least as evident from the statements of the Chief Minister on Tuesday," said sources in the CEO's office.
They also said that the Commission is closely monitoring the situation.
"It will wait for a couple of days and then again seek a report from the state government on the initiation of a departmental probe against these seven AEROs," the sources said.
The seven AEROs suspended by the ECI are Sefaur Rahaman from the Samserganj Assembly constituency in Murshidabad district, Nitish Das from the Farakka Assembly constituency in Murshidabad district, Dalia Ray Choudhury from the Maynaguri Assembly constituency in Jalpaiguri district, Murshid Alam from the Suti Assembly constituency in Murshidabad district, Satyajit Das and Joydeep Kundu from the Canning (Purba) Assembly constituency in South 24 Parganas district, and Debashis Biswas from the Debra Assembly constituency in West Midnapore district.
However, legal experts feel that a proper departmental probe against these seven AEROs will be inevitable, especially after the announcement of the polling dates for the crucial Assembly polls later this year and the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) being in force immediately from the time of announcement.
"In that case, the entire administrative control of the state government will come under the ECI, and a departmental probe against these seven AEROs will be inevitable. But in that case, it would be a major embarrassment for the state government," said a legal expert.
