Piqued by Retired Officers' Appointments, Now 'Unemployed' Bengal Youth Seek Poll Observer's Job

Kolkata: Amid questions raised by Trinamool Congress on appointment of retired officers as special polling observers in West Bengal, some youths on Saturday submitted applications to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), seeking appointment as election observers or some other posts.

The youths, who claimed they were "unemployed", said when retired officers are being appointed as poll observers by the Election Commission, why can't job seekers get the opportunity to serve the country?

The Election Commission had appointed Vivek Dube, a retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of 1981 batch, as special police observer in the state after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee objected to K.K. Sharma's appointment for the same post, calling him "an RSS man".

Subsequently, the Commission had also appointed Ajay V Nayak, a former CEO of Bihar, as the special observer for Bengal.

"Special and police observers are not serving government employees. If they can get opportunity to serve the country as officers of the Election Commission, we can also work for the Commission to serve the country," said a job seeker.

Another youth, who claimed to have submitted his application, said: "If Dube and Nayak get jobs here, why can't the Commission give us opportunities to be observers or any other posts to serve the country?"

However, officers at the office of the CEO, West Bengal, declined to make any comment if they have received any such applications from job aspirants.

But sources said 17 such applications were submitted at the CEO office on Saturday.

Incidentally, an independent candidate Ramu Mandi who is contesting from Barrackpore seat in the Lok Sabha elections had filed a writ petition at the Calcutta High Court seeking cancellation of appointment of the two retired officers by the Commission.

Terming their appointments as unconstitutional, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had alleged the Centre was trying to administer Bengal by proxy.

"They have sent two persons from Delhi to help BJP in Bengal," Banerjee had said recently while campaigning in Nadia district.