Kolkata, 18 March (H.S.): The Election Commission of India on Wednesday ordered a sweeping administrative reshuffle in West Bengal, removing District Magistrates (DMs) and District Election Officers (DEOs) of 11 districts and replacing two election officers in Kolkata, in a major exercise aimed at ensuring free and fair polls.

The directive, issued Wednesday, takes effect immediately, with the newly appointed officials required to confirm assumption of charge by 3 PM Thursday.

The districts that have seen change of guard at the top administrative level include Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, North Dinajpur, Malda, Murshidabad, Nadia, East Burdwan, North and South 24 Parganas, Darjeeling and Alipurduar.

The newly appointed officers are: Jiten Yadav (Cooch Behar), Sandeep Ghosh (Jalpaiguri), Vivek Kumar (North Dinajpur), Rajnaveer Singh Kapoor (Malda), Arjun R. (Murshidabad), Srikanth Palli (Nadia), Sweta Agarwal (East Burdwan), Shilpa Gourisaria (North 24 Parganas), Abhishek Kumar Tiwari (South 24 Parganas), Harichandra Panikar (Darjeeling) and T. Balasubramanyam (Alipurduar).

In Kolkata, Smita Pandey has been appointed DEO for North Kolkata, while Randhir Kumar has been given charge of South Kolkata.

The Commission has directed that officers removed from their posts will not be assigned any election-related duties until the electoral process is complete.

Wednesday's order came on the heels of another EC directive earlier in the day removing five DIG-rank police officers from their posts. In recent weeks, the Commission had also transferred the state's Director General of Police and the Kolkata Police Commissioner, among several other senior officials.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Priyanka Pandey