EC sacks top bureaucrats, senior cops in poll-bound Bengal; Mamata to hit the streets

The removal of West Bengal’s top bureaucrats, including the Chief Secretary, by the Election Commission (EC) has become a new flash point between the poll panel and the Trinamool Congress (TMC), with the ruling party in West Bengal staging a day-long walkout from the Rajya Sabha on Monday (March 16) in protest against the move.

TMC MP Derek O'Brien raised the issue just before Zero Hour in the Upper House and slammed the EC for its sudden midnight move to reshuffle the state's top bureaucracy. However, he said that the EC had all the powers to do it.

"In the dead of night, the chief secretary, the principal secretary and the home secretary have been removed by the EC. They have all the power to do it," O'Brien said, adding that his party was walking out for the day in protest.

Rijiju defends poll panel

However, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju criticised the TMC over its allegations against the EC and for raising the matter in Parliament. Pointing out that the EC was a constitutional authority, Rijiju said that questioning its decisions in Parliament was neither appropriate nor productive.

Also Read: Election Commission removes West Bengal's top bureaucrats

"If every member wants to raise or question the decision of the constitutional authority, like the courts and EC, it is not wise. EC has separate power, and that power has been given to the authority," he added.

The Union Minister also accused the TMC and Congress of "always attacking the Constitutional bodies", and said it was "misusing the time of this House".

Top police officers replaced

The EC also removed West Bengal DGP Peeyush Pandey and Kolkata Police Commissioner Supratim Sarkar, an official said. It appointed senior IPS officer Siddh Nath Gupta as the director general of police, replacing Pandey.

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The poll panel also appointed Ajay Kumar Nand as the Kolkata police commissioner, he said. The EC said the decision to remove the officers was taken following a review of the poll preparedness of the state.

Mamata to lead protest over LPG prices

Meanwhile, TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, a day after the schedule for the West Bengal Assembly elections was announced, will lead a protest march in Kolkata against the rise in cooking gas prices.

The protest march will commence in the afternoon from College Square to Dorina Crossing in central Kolkata.

EC scraps web camera contract

However, hours before the TMC supremo’s protest march, an official said that the poll body has scrapped the contract of the agency that supplied web cameras during the 2021 West Bengal assembly and 2024 Lok Sabha elections after detecting major irregularities in footage, and has selected three new vendors for the supply of equipment.

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A senior official said that the decision to change the vendor was taken after serious discrepancies were found while examining recordings from cameras used in previous elections.

Three companies from outside the state have now been selected through fresh tenders to supply the equipment, he said.

Footage gaps at sensitive booths

"The Commission has made it clear that there should be no lapse in the conduct of polling. If violence or disturbance takes place at a booth, the poll will be stopped and re-conducted. Re-polling will be held as many times as required," an EC official said.

"When the recordings from the 2021 assembly and 2024 Lok Sabha elections were examined, about 30 per cent of the cameras had no recording at all. In another 30 per cent, only about half an hour of footage at the start and end of polling was found, while the rest was blank,” reported PTI, quoting a source in the EC.

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The report further stated that most of these cameras had been installed at sensitive booths where incidents of violence had been reported on polling day.

Officials said the absence of proper recordings also meant that the poll panel could not submit web camera footage in court in cases related to post-poll violence.

New surveillance plan for polls

The issue came to light during checks conducted during the Kaliganj assembly by-election, following which the earlier agency's contract was cancelled, and a new vendor was brought in through a fresh tender process, they said.

Under the new plan, web cameras will be installed both inside and outside polling booths, particularly in sensitive or violence-prone areas.

"In sensitive locations, two cameras will be installed at each booth. Observers will decide the number of such booths based on law-and-order reports," another official said.

(With agency inputs)