Bengal govt removes ECI-appointed East Midnapore DM Joyoshi Dasgupta

Kolkata, June 10 (IANS) The West Bengal government has started the process of removing bureaucrats appointed by the Election Commission of India (ECI) before or during the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections to ensure free and fair elections.

The state government has started the process with the District Magistrate (DM) of East Midnapore district, Joyoshi Dasgupta, a 2010-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the West Bengal cadre.

Before the recently-concluded Lok Sabha polls, the ECI removed the erstwhile District Magistrate of East Midnapore Tanvir Afzal, a West Bengal Civil Service (WBCS)-cadre official and instated Dasgupta, an IAS cadre officer.

As the District Magistrate, she was also the District Electoral Officer of East Midnapore. However, she was removed less than 24 hours after Narendra Modi was sworn in as the Prime Minister for his third consecutive term.

Now Dasgupta’s removal from the post of the East Midnapore District Magistrate immediately after polls has created ripples in the corridors of power in the state. The ruling Trinamool Congress has lost in both the Lok Sabha constituencies in East Midnapore district namely Kanthi and Tamluk in the recently concluded polls.

Since the results for Kanthi and Tamluk were declared, the leadership of the ruling Trinamool Congress had been claiming that they could have won both seats unless some ECI-appointed observers and officials had allegedly conspired against them.

What is even surprising is that despite being removed as the East Midnapore District Magistrate she is yet to be allotted any fresh chair. For the time being she has been kept attached to the state personnel & administrative reforms department, which controls the transfers and posting of IAS and WBCS officers in the state.

However, the state government has announced the name of Purnedu Kumar Majhi, a WBCS cadre officer as a replacement for Dasgupta.

–IANS

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