The November 4 order places IT director general Seema Khanna under Pawan Kumar Sharma and assigns DEC Prakash Rajpurohit a supporting role in election planning.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has ordered a layer of supervision for a top official in charge of IT systems and shared key responsibilities of a senior deputy election commissioner with another officer, against the backdrop of a mounting controversy over allegations of internal dissent in the poll panel.
The November 4 work order comes three months after a controversial July 28 order prompted two election commissioners to write to the cabinet secretary objecting to the changes. To be sure, ECI has told the Supreme Court that the July 28 order was never implemented because of a July 30 order recalling the changes.
ECI places IT director general under senior deputy election commissioner
According to the new order, director general of IT Seema Khanna will be supervised by senior deputy election commissioner Pawan Kumar Sharma. “She would put up files of above mentioned functional divisions through Sr DEC (PKS),” the order said, describing her responsibilities as IT/ICT and grievance/PGRS (public grievance redressal system).
Khanna is at the centre of a controversy over allegations that ECI centralised digital voter roll infrastructure and implemented restrictions in software to stop state officials from accessing voting lists.
Senior deputy election commissioner Maneesh Garg – who issued the controversial July 28 order – retains election planning but will be assisted by deputy election commissioner Prakash Rajpurohit, who also has charge of delimitation. “He will be supported by DEC (PR),” the order said.
As per the new order, besides IT and ICT, Pawan Kumar Sharma handles political parties, election expenditure policy, the observer division and coordination. He also oversees the North East-II, East-II and South-II zones. Khanna will put up files of her divisions through him.
Garg retains election planning and EVM responsibilities
Garg retains election planning, EVMs and Election Database Management Division, along with East-I (Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh) and North-III (Uttar Pradesh). Deputy election commissioner Bhanu Prakash Yeturu will look after administration, establishment, electoral rolls and RTI, and Rajpurohit will send election planning files through Garg.
“We can’t call this order a reversal of the July order because the previous order was never implemented,” a senior EC official told HT, adding that the new order was a unanimous decision by the poll panel.
The order assumed significance because it comes roughly three months after election commissioners SS Sandhu and Vivek Joshi wrote nearly identical letters to cabinet secretary TV Somanathan in an unprecedented step on July 29. Sandhu’s letter was accompanied by the copy of an order issued by Garg on July 28 allocating work to himself and other EC officials, including Seema Khanna and deputy election commissioner Sanjay Kumar.