These four district magistrates are from the West Bengal Civil Service cadre and not Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers. Among those removed are Purba Bardhaman DM Bidhan Chandra Roy, Purba Medinipur DM Tanvir Afzal, Birbhum DM Purnendu Kumar, and Jhargram DM Sunil Agarwala.
Soon after the ECI order, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale accused the poll panel of bias. “Modi-appointed Election Commission changed West Bengal’s DGP 2 times in 24 hours. And now this. Transfers, use of Central Forces, ED, CBI, IT & every trick in the book being used. No matter what they do – the zamindars of BJP sitting in Delhi will get a befitting answer from Bengal in June,” Gokhale posted on X.
In a letter, the ECI said, “Commission transfers such DMs & SPs who are not conferred IAS and IPS respectively; transfers 8 non-cadre SPs/SSPs and 5 non-cadre DMs in four states of Gujarat, Punjab, Odisha and West Bengal”.
“Taking forward its commitment for a level playing field in the ongoing Lok Sabha Elections 2024, the Election Commission of India (ECI) today has issued transfer orders for non-cadre officers who are posted at leadership positions as District Magistrate (DM) and Superintendent of Police (SP) in four states namely Gujarat, Punjab, Odisha and West Bengal. Post of DM and SP in the district are encadred for officers from Indian Administrative and Indian Police Service respectively,” it added.
“Under the directive, all respective state governments have been instructed to promptly transfer non-encadred officers from their current roles as DM and SP/SSP, with immediate effect, and submit a compliance report to the Commission.”
On March 18, ECI had ordered the removal of DGP Rajeev Kumar who was at the centre of many controversies. After Vivek Sahay, the senior-most IPS officer in the state, was made interim DGP, ECI directed the West Bengal Government to make Sanjay Mukherjee as new DGP. Out of three names which were sent by the State Government, ECI chose the 1989 batch IPS officer as the new DGP.
Lok Sabha Elections 2024 in West Bengal will be held in seven phases from April 19 to June 1 across 42 parliamentary constituencies. The results will be announced on June 4.