Poll Vault: In Third Big Rejig in 3 Weeks, ECI Transfers 8 District Magistrates, 12 Police Superintendents across 5 States

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday issued transfer orders for district magistrates (DMs), as well as officers of the rank of superintendent of police (SP) and deputy inspector general (DIG)/inspector general (IG) in Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Andhra Pradesh. The order was issued nearly 10 days after the poll body transferred eight non-cadre SPs/SSPs and five non-cadre DMs in four states. It is the third major transfer order since the schedule for the Lok Sabha polls beginning this month was announced.

In Tuesday’s order, the poll body said that the decision was taken as part of the regular review by the commission during a meeting chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar along with Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu.

The officials who were transferred include the DM of Udalguri in Assam, the DM and SP of Bhojpur and Nawada districts in Bihar, and the SP of Deoghar in Jharkhand. The DMs of Cuttack and Jagatsinghpur, SPs of Angul, Behrampur, Khurda, Rourkela, and DCP Cuttack and IG Central in Odisha were also reshuffled. In Andhra Pradesh, the DMs of Krishna, Ananthpuramu, and Tirupati districts, the SPs of Prakasam, Palnadu, Chittoor, Anathpuramu, and Nellore districts, and the IGP of Guntur Range were transferred.

In addition, the ECI directed to fill up vacant posts of SP (Rural) Ranchi, DIG Palamu, as well as IG Dumka, and send a panel of officials to Jharkhand.

“Under the directive, all the transferred officials have been asked to hand over the charge to their immediate junior officer and these officers will not be assigned any election duty till completion of the General Elections 2024. The respective state governments have been directed to send a panel of names of IAS and IPS officers to the Commission,” the ECI said.

This is the third major transfer order since the dates for the Lok Sabha and assembly polls in some states were announced on March 16 by the Election Commission. Soon after, on March 18, the ECI ordered the removal of top officials of several states, including the West Bengal director general of police, and home secretaries of six states.

The home secretaries of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand were removed from their posts. The secretaries of the general administrative departments in Mizoram and Himachal Pradesh were also removed.

On March 21, the poll body transferred eight non-cadre SPs/SSPs and five non-cadre DMs in four states – Gujarat, Punjab, Odisha and West Bengal. In addition, the commission has also directed the transfer of SSP Bathinda in Punjab and SP Sonitpur in Assam for familial association with elected political representatives in these states.

In February, the poll body directed all state governments to ensure that officers who are transferred out of the district after completing three years are not posted in another district within the same parliamentary constituency.

The Lok Sabha polls will be held in seven phases between April 19 and June 1, with the votes to be counted on June 4.