Bengal SIR: CEO’s office recommends punishment for some EROs, AEROs

The Election Commission of India received a report from West Bengal’s CEO flagging deliberate delays by electoral officers during the Special Intensive Revision. The office recommended disciplinary action, while a dispute erupted with the West Bengal Civil Service (Executive) Officers’ Association

Kolkata: The office of the West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has sent a detailed report to the Election Commission of India headquarters in New Delhi highlighting deliberate performance derelictions on the part of a section of electoral registration officers (EROs) and assistant electoral registration officers (AEROs) during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state.

The CEO’s office has recommended disciplinary action for EROS and AEROs found guilty of deliberate dereliction, while maintaining that the Commission will ultimately decide on this count.

---

“The CEO’s office, in its report to the Commission, had specially highlighted some cases, where the EROs and AEROs concerned deliberately delayed the process of uploading the documents received from the voters during the hearing sessions. The instruction from the Commission was clear that such documents should be uploaded to the system on the same day they are received from the voters. But a section of the EROs and AEROs deliberately kept the work of uploading documents on hold till the last moment, which led to the development of a large number of documents ultimately being referred for judicial adjudication,” a CEO’s office insider pointed out.

He also said that in its report to the Commission, the CEO’s office had highlighted the identified cases of such deliberate delays in uploading of documents, which ultimately led those documents to be referred for judicial adjudication. On February 28, the final voters’ list in West Bengal was published minus those 60 lakh odd cases which were referred for judicial adjudication, and it was decided that supplementary lists will be published as per the progress of the judicial adjudication.

Earlier this week, a statement war broke out between the West Bengal Civil Service (Executive) Officers’ Association and the CEO’s office over the questionable roles of certain EROs and AEROs during the course of the revision exercise.

First, the association accused Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal of deliberately attributing the marking of certain names as “under adjudication” in the final electoral roll to the functioning of EROs and AEROs. Just a few hours after a statement on this count was issued by the officers’ body, the CEO’s office refuted the allegation and issued a counter-statement claiming that it had not generally attributed all cases under adjudication to indecision by EROs and AEROs.

“However, a certain number of cases remained pending at the level of EROs/AEROs and were therefore referred for adjudication, which is factually verifiable. WBCSEOA cannot and should not assume the role of spokesperson for officers under deemed deputation to the ECI. Posting comments on the basis of hearsay and attempts to discredit constitutional bodies or statutory authorities can have serious consequences. Government servants are well advised to function within the Lakshman Rekha of the applicable conduct rules,” the counter-statement from the CEO’s office read.