EC to challenge High Court’s professor poll duty order before division bench

KOLKATA: The EC has decided to challenge Calcutta HC order that set aside the appointment of govt college teachers as presiding officers during the Bengal assembly polls on April 23 and 29. State CEO Manoj Agarwal said EC would move an appeal before a division bench against the order passed by Justice Krishna Rao. An official said that EC needed around 4.1 lakh polling officials, and since the duty roster had been prepared, it would be difficult to induct staff from the reserve bench. Poll body replaces Chinsurah observer EChas relieved C Paulrasu, a 2004-batch IAS officer, as observer for the Chinsurah seat in Hooghly and asked him to immediately leave Bengal. IAS officer, Rajesh Kumar Sharma, who is a general observer in Hooghly, was asked to take charge of Chinsurah. TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh claimed Paulrasu had said in the observers’ WhatsApp group that the CEO had no authority to convene meetings with or direct the observers, as they were appointed by EC. This was allegedly cited as the reason for his removal.