The Election Commission has restored the oversight of Deputy Election Commissioner Sanjay Kumar on the IT department following concerns raised by two Election Commissioners about an internal order issued by Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Maneesh Garg.
On July 28, Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Maneesh Garg issued an order removing Deputy Election Commissioner Sanjay Kumar from overseeing the IT and communications divisions. This decision allowed Director General of Information Technology Seema Khanna to report directly to the commission. However, on August 1, two Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, expressed concerns about this work allocation order in a letter to Cabinet Secretary TV Somanathan, as reported by The Indian Express on September 23. In their letters, Sandhu and Joshi alleged that Garg had made the changes without consulting the Election Commission or the officers concerned, despite repeated verbal and written instructions that such changes required 'prior discussion or approval' from the poll panel. These concerns led to the restoration of Kumar's oversight on the IT department. According to a new order issued on November 4, Khanna is now required to route files related to IT and communications, and the public grievance redressal system through Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Pawan Kumar Sharma.
This came against the background of Joshi in May having flagged that there was a ‘gradual centralisation of the electoral roll database’ and proposed an audit to certify that ‘no one, except the concerned statutory authorities, has credentials to make any change in the database’. In August, Sandhu also recorded that state-level election officials were reporting they ‘don’t have proper and complete access’ to the digital system through which the poll body maintains the electoral roll. He flagged that Khanna ‘doesn’t have any legal authority to restrict proper and complete access and freedom to operate, as given by law, to the statutory authorities’.
In its statement on September 26, the Election Commission said that oversight of the IT division by the deputy election commissioner had never been withdrawn and that the work redistribution order had not been implemented.
Source:
Scroll.in
