15 days to go, EC appoints new poll DGP to helm affairs

CHENNAI: The Election Commission on Saturday shook up the state bureaucracy by relieving director general of police Ashok Kumar of election duty and appointing K P Maghendhran, a 1984-batch IPS officer, as DGP (election). Kumar, though a non-partisan official, was removed because he was serving a fixed tenure as DGP after his superannuation in June 2015.The Centre has not approved the appointment, which was done based on the SC order in the Prakash Singh case.
This is the third consecutive election in the state that the EC has appointed an official of its choice as DGP (election).It also appointed additional director general of police Karan Singha as chief of the state intelligence following complaints of rampant misuse of intelligence machinery for electioneering. Collectors of Karur, Tiruvarur, Tiruvannamalai, Tirunelveli and Pudukottai and superintendents of police of Thanja vur and Erode have also been shifted.
Karur collector T P Rajesh came in for severe criticism after DMK in a complaint alleged that he let a candidate go scot-free after her vehicle was seized by a block development officer with `10 lakh on April 18. After the cover-up was exposed by TOI, a complaint was preferred with police and an FIR registered (without recording cash seizure) against the candidate, a week after the incident.
The opposition, however, is far from satisfied with the EC action. DMK and Congress had demanded transfer of 25 more officials in various ranks, including Chennai police commissioner T K Rajendran and additional director general of police (L&O) J K Tripathy , said a DMK leader.
MDMK general secretary Vaiko, in a representation to the chief electoral officer, said since Ashok Kumar was continuing as DGP (law and order) after his superannuation, he should be shifted to a non-sensitive post to prevent interfering in election work. Vaiko also charged that the phones of all opposition leaders were being tapped by the state intelligence. Conducting an election in TN is turning out to be a major challenge for the EC. So far, more than Rs 75 crore has been seized by various agencies from people not able to produce documentary evidence to prove source of the money.
The EC also has a long way to go in ensuring a free and fair election. For instance, its claim of reducing response time on complaints from three hours to three minutes is disputable as information about a huge amount of money being stored in an educational institution in a central TN district was acted upon only 24 hours later. The commission's state office received the information on Wednesday night, but action was taken only on Thursday night. “By then, information about the impending search had leaked and the EC team returned empty-handed from the college,“ said a revenue official.
The EC has come in for flak for delayed transfers of officials also. In the 2011 assembly election, it had replaced DGP Letika Saran with Bhola Nath, and DGP K Ramanujam with Anoop Jaiswal in 2014 Lok Sabha election, both following complaints from opposition parties. In the present case, the action has come just two weeks before the poll. While Saran went on leave in 2011, handing over overall charge of head of police force also to Bhola Nath, Ramanujam continued as law and order DGP in 2014. The subsequent promulgation of prohibitory orders in 2014 election came in for wide criticism as it became a cover for money distribution by political parties.
Ashok Kumar too will continue as law and order DGP now, but all field-level officials in charge of election work will report only to Maghendhran. As per the government order, Maghendhran will not report to Ashok Kumar. Interestingly, Chennai police commissioner T K Rajendran, a DGP rank official and a batch-mate of Maghendhran, will have to report to him with regard to election duty.
The new collectors are Kakarla Usha in Karur, T N Venkatesh in Tiruvarur, Pooja Kulkarni in Tiruvannamalai, C Samayamoorthy in Tirunelveli and S Swarna in Pudukottai.The new SPs for Thanjavur and Erode are R Sudhakar and Rupesh Kumar Meena.