VIJAYAWADA: At a time when the State government is locking horns with the Election Commission over the transfer of IPS officers, particularly State Intelligence chief AB Venkateswara Rao, senior IAS officials feel that Chief Secretary Anil Chandra Punetha has committed a mistake by defying the order of the Chief Election Commission hours after obeying the same.
“Once the election schedule is issued, the Election Commission has all the power and all the officers involved in the election process will come under its control.
Once the ECI takes any decision, it should be implemented in letter and spirit as the ultimate goal is to ensure free and fair elections, without giving scope for any doubts,’’ the officers said and felt that the CS went the other way by giving an impression that he is acting on the directions of the ruling party.
Sharing their opinions with TNIE on condition of anonymity, several senior bureaucrats opined, ‘’ If any complaint is filed against an official during the elections, he/she may be relieved of poll duties even if he/she is discharging duties in a transparent manner. Such decisions are taken with the sole objective of conducting the polls in a free and fair manner and remove all doubts among the people.’’
A senior bureaucrat observed that in this particular case, the CS committed a blunder — by first complying with the Election Commission’s directive and issuing a GO transferring the three IPS officers in question and the next day afternoon, issuing another GO cancelling the transfer of the State Intelligence Chief claiming that he was not connected with elections.
“If the logic is that the Intelligence DG is not associated with election procedure, the CS should have raised the issue with the ECI immediately after getting directions the first day itself and should not have issued the first GO transferring the police officers,’’ the official reasoned.
It is wrong on the part of the CS to issue an order transferring the officials and then cancelling it through another GO the next day, he stressed.
However, most of them were of the opinion that the Naidu government isn’t yet a caretaker government and they would have to function as earlier, and that the process of sending files to the CM for his clearance was being carried out as usual.
During election time, major policy decisions cannot be taken. In case of any major decisions, a screening committee under the chairmanship of the CS will screen them first and send them to the Chief Electoral Officer who in turn will forward them to the ECI.
The poll body will give the final nod if it finds the decisions are not violative of the model code.