Kolkata, Feb 16 (NationPress) - The Election Commission of India (ECI) has instructed the office of the West Bengal Chief Secretary, Nandini Chakraborty, to promptly suspend an additional seven assistant electoral registration officers (AEROs) involved in the current Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state due to allegations of negligence in their duties.

To recap, in August of the previous year, the ECI had mandated the state government to suspend and file FIRs against two electoral registration officers (EROs) and two AEROs after evidence emerged of their involvement in fraudulent practices related to electoral rolls.

The West Bengal Chief Secretary's office faced criticism from the ECI for only partially executing the order by suspending the two EROs and two AEROs, yet failing to file FIRs against them.

In its latest directive, the ECI has ordered the suspension of seven additional AEROs associated with the revision process. Beyond their suspension, the state government is also required to initiate departmental disciplinary actions against these officials.

The seven AEROs identified for suspension by the ECI are Sefaur Rahaman from Samserganj Assembly Constituency in Murshidabad, Nitish Das from Farakka in Murshidabad, Dalia Ray Choudhury from Maynaguri in Jalpaiguri, Murshid Alam from Suti in Murshidabad, Satyajit Das and Joydeep Kundu from Canning (Purba) in South 24 Parganas, and Debashis Biswas from Debra in West Midnapore.

On February 14, the ECI had also instructed the Chief Secretary's office to file outstanding FIRs by February 17 against the two EROs and two AEROs mentioned earlier.

A fresh notice regarding this was dispatched by the ECI to the state secretariat on Saturday evening, establishing February 17 (Tuesday) as the deadline for filing FIRs against these negligent electoral officials.

“The ECI observed that despite multiple reminders to register FIRs against these four negligent electoral officers, the state government has been sluggish in taking action. Consequently, the Commission decided to impose a deadline for FIR registration,” an insider from the CEO's office stated.

Among the four officers for whom FIRs are to be filed are the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) for Baruipur East Assembly constituency in South 24 Parganas, Debottam Dutta Chowdhury, and the Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO) of the same constituency, Tathagata Mandal.

The other two are the ERO from Moyna Assembly constituency in East Midnapore, Biplob Sarkar, and the AERO of the same constituency, Sudipta Das.

These officials were accused of manipulating the electoral rolls. In light of these allegations, the ECI had ordered their suspension and the filing of FIRs.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had previously criticized the ECI's directive, accusing the poll body of acting as a “bonded labor of the BJP.” She further asserted that her government would refrain from taking action against its employees.