Defying the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) diktat of deputing 95 IAS and IPS officers on election duty in the five poll-bound states.
Defying the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) diktat of deputing 95 IAS and IPS officers on election duty in the five poll-bound states — Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur, the Maharashtra government is sending only 40 IAS and five IPS officers.
As Maharashtra cadre have for long been the most favoured for election duty, the ECI wanted to draw the highest number of officers from the state this time as well. But, the government communicated to the ECI that it can spare only 45 officers due to the acute shortage of IAS and IPS officers in the state.
“The ECI has not admitted our stand and has warned us that it would draw any number of officers without intimating the state government further. It may act in its capacity. But this time, we decided not to release as many officers as demanded by the ECI,” said an officer from the Mantralaya. The officer reasoned that the highest number of IAS and IPS officers for poll duty was being demanded from Maharashtra because the government has been toeing the ECI’s line all these years.
The names of the officials are decided by the ECI based on their records. A couple of state cadre officers have been blacklisted due to misconduct during election duty a few years ago.
The state government has the sanctioned strength of 350 IAS officers, of which nearly 52 posts are vacant and 46 have been deputed at the Centre. This has reduced the working staff’s strength to 252. Worse, 17 top officers are retiring this year, but only 12 are joining the state service.
“This has been the reason behind cutting short the number of officers deputed for election duty in the five states. The officers are expected to serve 25-30 days. Their duty starts from the day of filing of nominations to the day of counting. They serve in their states in the interval between voting and counting,” the officer said.
“Officials from sales tax, stamp duty, revenue departments, municipal and divisional commissioners, and officials of the rank of principal secretary and above have not been spared from the duty.”
The officers will report for duty in their assigned states on Monday.
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