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Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Pant on Monday had written a letter to Election Commission of India (ECI) stating that the state government is removing the four state government officials but not suspending them.

“Suspending those officers who have consistently demonstrated sincerity and competence would be disproportionately harsh,” said the letter.

The Chief Secretary also mentioned in the letter that an ‘internal inquiry’ is being done and action will be taken accordingly on completion of the inquiry.

The letter also mentions that suspension of the government officials will break the ‘morale’ of the officers who will be in the poll exercise.

Notably, earlier this month, the poll panel had announced its decision to suspend four officials including two Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and two Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) and had also asked the Chief Secretary to lodge an FIR against the said officers for allegedly not following the regulation.

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The deadline given by the ECI to the state government was supposed to get over by 3 pm on Monday and before that the Chief Secretary had shot the letter to the poll panel.

Earlier on receiving the letter, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at different public meetings had slammed the poll panel and mentioned that ECI is working like ‘bonded labours’ of the central government. She even mentioned that she will not suspend the state government officers.

Retired Justice of Supreme Court Ashok Ganguly however feels that the decision taken by the state government can bring ‘Constitutional crisis’.

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