The Mamata Banerjee government on Tuesday agreed to transfer the officials as directed by the Election Commission.
The move comes hours after Election Commission rejected the West Bengal government’s proposal asking the Election Commission to reconsider its Monday order directing the removal of eight officials from poll duty in state.
The EC made it clear that it must transfer eight officials in the state by Wednesday and replace them with those that the panel has chosen.
On Monday, the EC had ordered removal of five superintendents of police, a district magistrate and two additional district magistrates following complaints against them.
It had also named the officers who are to replace them.
Addressing an election rally, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had on Monday taken serious exception to the transfers and said she was not going to accept the order.
She had said, “I will not remove a single officer. Let the Commission do it. The transfers were made without consulting the state government. I heard that the five SPs have been given transfer orders. Without even asking the state, the (new) names have also been decided”.
The state’s Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Gupta told PTI, “I heard that the Chief Secretary has written a letter to the CEC this morning.
To a question if he had any communication from the CEC’s office in this regard, Gupta said, “I don’t have any communication as yet.”
West Bengal Advocate General Bimal Chatterjee refused to comment on whether he was consulted by the state government on a possible crisis over the Chief Minister’s statement that the EC directive would not be followed.
“I will not say anything on this,” he said when contacted over phone.
