By creating a new distribution of responsibilities within itself, the Election Commission has made changes in the monitoring system of the departments related to IT and election management. After this decision, Seema Khanna will now have to send her files through Pawan Kumar Sharma.
Major administrative changes have been made in the Election Commission regarding the functioning and responsibilities of officers. The Commission has made fresh allocation of departments among Deputy Election Commissioners and Directors General. Under the order issued on November 4, Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Pawan Kumar Sharma has been given the responsibility of departments related to IT, ICT and grievance redressal. Along with this, a new reporting system has been implemented for the work of IT Director General Seema Khanna.
Now he will have to send the files of his department through Pawan Kumar Sharma. This reshuffle has been made after the appointment of new Deputy Election Commissioner Prakash Rajpurohit. This administrative change is being considered important amid alleged differences within the Commission and questions being raised regarding the digital electoral system.
Seema Khanna will now have to send files through Pawan Sharma
According to the new work allocation order, IT Director General Seema Khanna will now work under the supervision of Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Pawan Kumar Sharma. His department includes work related to Information Technology, Information and Communication Technology, Grievances and Public Grievance Redressal System i.e. PGRS. Under this arrangement, Seema Khanna will have to forward the related files through Pawan Sharma. With this, the responsibility of monitoring the functioning of the IT department and administrative coordination has come to Pawan Sharma.
Questions were raised regarding ECINet and digital voter list.
Seema Khanna’s department has been in the news in recent times due to controversies related to the digital electoral system. Questions were raised about the centralization of the Election Commission’s digital voter list infrastructure and the restrictions imposed on the software. The allegation was that the access of state officials to the voter list has been limited. In this background, changes in the monitoring system of the IT department are being considered important. However, amidst the questions raised regarding this order of the Commission and alleged internal disagreements, clarifications have also emerged at different levels.
Pawan Sharma got many important responsibilities
Pawan Kumar Sharma has been entrusted not only with the IT and ICT department, but also with the work related to political parties, election expenditure policy, supervisory department and coordination. Apart from this, he will also have the responsibility of North-East II, East II and South II zones. In this way, after the new order, their role in the administrative and technical functioning of the Commission has become more important than before.
Manish Garg remains in charge of EVM and election planning.
In the new distribution, Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Manish Garg will continue to have the responsibility of election planning, electronic voting machines i.e. EVMs and election database management. Along with East-First Zone of Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, he will also have the charge of North-Third Zone of Uttar Pradesh. New Deputy Election Commissioner Prakash Rajpurohit has been given the responsibility of assisting Manish Garg in matters related to election planning. Rajpurohit will also look after the delimitation work and the election plan files related to them will be sent through Manish Garg.
Bhanu Prakash Yeturu has been given the work of administration and voter list.
In the new work allocation of the Commission, Deputy Election Commissioner Bhanu Prakash Yeturu has been given the responsibility of departments related to administration, establishment, voter list and Right to Information i.e. RTI. In this way, a new structure of work has been created between different officers.
Discussion regarding the order increased due to Election Commission’s clarification
After the change in work allocation, a senior official of the Commission clarified that there has been no change in the supervisory officer reporting to the Director General of Information Technology. However, the information revealed regarding the new order mentions a change in the reporting system of Seema Khanna. Due to this difference, there is discussion within the Commission regarding the actual nature of responsibilities. At present, through the new order, the work of IT, election planning, EVM and administrative departments has been divided among different officers.