Election Commission appoints 20 IAS officers from Bihar as observers for upcoming Assembly elections in five states

To serve as observers in the upcoming Assembly elections in five states—Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan, and Telangana—the Election Commission has hired 20 IAS officers from Bihar.

Junior settlement officers for special secretaries, directors, joint secretaries, secretaries, and principal secretaries are among the officials who have been summoned.

According to government sources, the poll panel wrote to H.R. Srinivasa, CEO of Bihar, on September 26 to request that he make sure the 20 designated IAS officers are relieved in time to attend a meeting and receive the necessary briefing on October 6 at the Constitution Club of India in Delhi.

The letter from the EC further states that the absence of the called officials will be treated "very seriously" and that disciplinary action may be taken against them. The concerned IAS officers have been notified in a notification from the general administration department to obey the ECI instructions. A senior officer revealed to this newspaper that some of them have also served as poll observers in the past.

Officers from a variety of services are sent out to the poll-bound constituencies as general, police, and spending monitors. They remain there during the campaigning and elections, keeping an eye on everything that falls within their scope, and reporting back to the EC.

police arrested

According to officials, four police officers, including a female sub-inspector, were detained in Patna's Beur neighborhood on Thursday for allegedly extorting money from bystanders while out on night patrol, according to PTI. Along with the sub-inspector, those detained also included a policeman, a home guard, and a police driver.