By Express News Service
HASSAN: The Election Commission of India has directed the chief electoral officer of Karnataka to take action against D Randeep for joining as the deputy commissioner of Hassan. He showed undue haste in joining the office of the deputy commissioner without awaiting any instructions from DPAR and the commission in complete disregard to laid down procedure, the commission said.
The commission’s direction to the state government seeking action against Randeep says that the post of deputy commissioner of Hassan was designated as the district election officer. The conduct of the officer despite knowing fully well that elections to legislative assembly were going on and model code of conduct was in force, smacks of malafide intentions and posed serious questions on the conduct of free and fair elections in his presence.
The commission also noted that the district election officer is designated by the commission and is subject to the superintendence, direction and control of the commission and is deemed to be on deputation to the commission.
It is the responsibility of the district election officer to supervise and coordinate all the work related to conducting of election in the district. It has also been brought to the notice of the commission that Randeep has not satisfactorily discharged his duties as the district electoral officer in Mysuru. The way in which first level checking of the EVMs was handled by the officer was not proper. Under his supervision, the health of the electoral roll was not up the mark.
In the district, some highly sensitive constituencies witnessed 4 per cent increase in the number of voters. Despite all these, he failed to put in any substantial efforts to address the shortcomings. Subsequently, Randeep took charge as the deputy commissioner of Hassan without consulting or seeking any instruction from the department of personnel and administrative reforms, it said.
The commission also said the day Randeep took charge as the DEO of Hassan, details of expenditure of sensitive constituencies and sensitive polling stations got leaked in various media from the office of DEO. Being in-charge of the district, he is solely and squarely responsible for the lapse.
