ECI Sets Aug 11 Deadline For Bengal Govt To Execute Suspension Order Of 4 Officials

<p>Kolkata, Aug 8 (PTI) In a fresh notice to West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Pant on Friday, the Election Commission of India set the state government a deadline of 3 pm on August 11 to execute its decision to suspend four officials and submit an action taken compliance report.</p> <p>The letter, signed by ECI secretary Sujeet Kumar Mishra, was shot off a day after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee publicly declared that she would not execute the suspension order and &ldquo;assured&rdquo; the bureaucratic fraternity of standing by the officers as their &lsquo;pehredar&rsquo; (guard), and indicated fresh escalation of face-offs between the poll panel and the state.</p> <p>The Commission on Tuesday had announced its decision to suspend four officials &ndash; two Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and two Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) &ndash; and a casual data entry operator in West Bengal for allegedly committing irregularities while preparing electoral rolls in Baruipur Purba and Moyna assembly constituencies in South 24 Parganas and Purba Medinipur districts.</p> <p>It directed the chief secretary to lodge FIRs against all five accused and sought an action taken report from the top bureaucrat at the earliest.</p> <p>Two among the five penalised state government employees &ndash; Debottam Dutta Choudhury and Biplab Sarkar, operating as EROs &ndash; are officers of the WBCS (Executive) rank.</p> <p>&ldquo;No compliance report indicating specific action taken against each of the officers has been received in the Commission so far,&rdquo; the ECI notice on Friday stated.</p> <p>&ldquo;The commission has directed that necessary action against the above officers shall be taken immediately and a compliance report be furnished to the Commission, latest by 3.00 PM on 11th August, 2025,&rdquo; the notice read.</p> <p>CM Banerjee had questioned the Commission&rsquo;s jurisdiction and legality of the move and alleged that the BJP was using the ECI to &ldquo;intimidate state government officers&rdquo;.</p> <p>&ldquo;We will not suspend them&hellip; We will protect you. I will continue to be your &lsquo;pehredar&rsquo;,&rdquo; Banerjee said at a public meeting in Jhargram on Tuesday, while tearing into the poll panel, and accusing it of functioning like &ldquo;bonded labourers&rdquo; of the BJP.</p> <p><em><strong>(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)</strong></em></p>

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