Major bureaucratic reshuffle as ECI ahead of SIR
The Statesman | 29 October 2025The state government today through a notification by the state Personnel and Administrative Reforms Department (PAR) at Nabanna, informed that apart from the aforesaid number of officers in the ranks of IAS, BCS, who were reshuffled, it also shifted some officers in the rank of ADM and SDO too ahead of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) by the poll panel in the state took effect.
As sources in the state chief Electoral officer claimed that according to the rules of the poll panel, no state going to polls in 2026 would be allowed to effect any changes of its officers after the SIR is introduced.
As sources in the know at the state secretariat at Nabanna claimed that the transfers were always on the cards and it was a routine transfer, since the officers concerned were all in their posts for over three years now. As per the poll panel directive, those officers would have been removed by the commission itself if the state did not act on its own.
As per the transfer order of DMs, some prominent names, who faced transfers according to the notification are commissioner of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) Dhabal Jain, who has been transferred to the post of DM of Birbhum. Sumit Gupta, who was DM of South 24-Parganas, had been made commissioner KMC. Mr Gupta has been replaced by Arvind Kumar Meena, who was DM, Cooch Behar.
The new DMs are expected to run the administrative show in the respective districts during the Assembly elections in West Bengal scheduled next year, unless the ECI decides to transfer some of them before the elections.
As per the rule, once the election dates are announced, the state administration comes under the authority of the ECI, which can decide to transfer any state government officer or staff till the time the model code of conduct is in force.
