Thiruvananthapuram: Initiating the process of assembly elections in four states, including Kerala and a Union Territory, the election commission of India (ECI) has instructed the states to ensure that government officers connected directly to the conduct of elections and who completed three years in the same district are transferred from their respective posts.
As per ECI’s transfer policy, officers who complete three years on or before May 31, 2021, will also have to be transferred from the respective districts. In the letter by senior principal secretary of ECI Narendra N Butolia to the chief secretaries and chief electoral officers of the states going to polls, it has been instructed to ensure that officials connected to the conduct of elections should not be posted in their home districts.
ECI said that officials against whom the commission had recommended disciplinary action in the past and which is pending or which has resulted in a penalty, or who have been charged for any lapse in any election or election-related work in the past, should not be assigned any election-related duty.
However, officers posted on the recommendation of the commission during Lok Sabha elections last year should be exempted from the transfer policy.
The commission has asked all the states to ensure strict compliance of the policy.
On the basis of the instruction from the commission, the state government has begun taking the list of officials who meet the aforesaid criteria of the commission. It is reliably learnt that there may be a change in district collectors as Palakkad and Pathanamthitta collectors are in the category of officials who have completed three years in the same district. Sources said that there would a reshuffle in the police top brass as well. While a couple of senior officials on the field will have to be transferred as they are natives of the district where they are posted, transfers will have to be made as promotions of senior officers are effective from January 1. While Thiruvananthapuram rural, Pathanamthitta, Palakkad and Malappuram will get new SPs, Thiruvananthapuram city and Ernakulam city would get new commissioners.
Police nodal officers
for elections
Meanwhile, on the instructions of the commission, three senior police officials have been appointed as police nodal officers for elections. ADGP (armed police battalion) K Padmakumar will be the state nodal police officer for central armed police forces (CAPF), ADGP (headquarters) Manoj Abraham will be the state police nodal officer and IG (headquarters) P Vijayan will be the nodal officer for election expenditures. The term of the existing government in the state would come to a close on June 1 next year. Similarly, Tamil Nadu (term ending on May 24), West Bengal (May 30), Puducherry (June 8) and Assam (May 31) are also going to the polls next year.