GUWAHATI, March 16: The Election Commission on Monday transferred Senior Superintendents of Police (SSPs) of five districts of Assam, a day after the announcement of the assembly poll schedule.
The SSPs of Majuli, South Salmara, Sadiya, Chirang and Dhemaji districts have been transferred with immediate effect, an official notification said.
Majuli SSP Haren Tokbi was replaced by Somalin Shubhdarshini, while R Sheetal Kumar replaced Mrinal Kumar Deka of South Salmara.
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Sadiya SSP Jagadish Das was replaced with Anchal Chauhan, Chirang’s Dhruba Bora with Sudhakar Singh and Dhemaji’s Swapnaneel Deka with Mohan Lal Meena.
ECI’s Secretary Rajiv Ranjan, in a letter to Assam Chief Secretary Ravi Kota, said that the decision has been taken after the Commission has reviewed the poll preparedness for the assembly elections.
The Commission’s directives must be implemented with immediate effect, and a compliance report regarding the officers joining their new posts must be sent by 11 am on Tuesday.
Further, the officers transferred out shall not be posted in any election-related posts till the completion of elections, the letter stated.
All five SSPs transferred out were Assam Police Service (APS) officials and have been replaced by Indian Police Service (IPS) officials.
Shubhdarshini is an IPS official of the 1991 batch, while Kumar and Chauhan belong to the 2020 batch.
Singh is an official of the 2013 batch, and Meena of 2016.
In a separate press note issued by the EC, it was stated that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, in his press conference on Sunday, had assured that elections in all states, including Assam, would be peaceful. In pursuance of this objective, ECI has posted/transferred senior police officers in Assam.
In another letter to the chief secretary, the Commission asked him to provide the names of all IAS Officers from the 2010 to 2021 batches for consideration for deployment as District Election Officers (DEO) by Monday.
Elections to 126 assembly constituencies in the state are scheduled to be held on April 9. (PTI)
