ECI deploys 478 observers, transfers 19 cops| India Information

The Election Fee of India (ECI) on Tuesday deployed 478 ballot observers for West Bengal and transferred 19 Indian Police Service (IPS) officers, together with not less than two inspectors normal, 4 commissioners, 12 superintendents, and a deputy commissioner (Kolkata).

A ballot official stated the ECI has deployed one normal observer every of the 294 meeting constituencies, and 84 police and 100 expenditure observers. “The ECI has directed the observers to achieve their respective meeting constituencies by Wednesday,” stated the ECI official.

He added that the observers will publicly share their telephone numbers in order that political events and voters might attain them and specify a hard and fast time to listen to election-related grievances day by day from candidates, their representatives, or any voter.

On Monday, the ECI transferred 4 IPS officers, together with the state’s police chief and the Kolkata police commissioner. This got here a day after the ECI introduced a two-phase ballot in West Bengal on April 23 and April 29. The ECI transferred the state’s chief secretary and residential secretary late on Sunday night time.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee wrote to chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, calling the transfers arbitrary and unilateral. “Such sweeping transfers have been affected with none cogent causes and with none allegation of violation, misconduct, or lapse in relation to the conduct of elections.”

She requested the ECI to chorus from adopting such unilateral measures, as they threat diluting its legacy, credibility, and institutional integrity and impinging upon the foundational rules of the constitutional framework.