Vacant Rajasthan election department posts awaiting officials!

Jaipur: Assembly elections are going to be held on Nov 23 and the work and responsibilities of the election department have increased. But the condition of the department is bad. Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Gupta does not have a team of working officers. A total of two officers are working instead of eight. 5 posts are vacant & 1 officer has gone on long leave. Basically, there are a total of 4 posts in the department, one Additional CEO, one Joint CEO, one Deputy CEO and one Assistant. But for the time of elections, a total of 4 posts including one Additional CEO, two Joint CEOs and one Deputy CEO are temporarily approved. This time also these four posts are already sanctioned.

Krishna Kunal was holding the post of Addl Secy. The DoP wanted to transfer him. Therefore, the state govt sent a panel of names of 3 IAS - Rashmi Gupta, Harimohan Meena and Laxman Kudi as options to the EC in June 2023 itself. But even after 4 months, when no name was approved, so the DoP, suo-moto, transferred Kunal and now this post is lying vacant since 10th Oct and the panel approval is awaited. For the adhoc sanction of an addl CEO, the state govt had also sent another panel of three other names to the Election Commission two months ago. One name in this is that of IAS Jitendra Soni, but the names of this panel were also not approved, whereas during the last elections, Jogaram was given the post of Addl CEO in Aug 2018 itself. RAS Pratibha Pareek is currently working on the existing post of Joint CEO. Two panels have to be sent from here for 2 adhoc posts. But it is not known when the panel will be sent and when the approval will come from the EC.

Similarly, on an existing post of Dy CEO, RAS Alok Jain is posted, who was appointed by the state govt in Aug 2023 without the approval of the EC. Now the Commission is not approving this name whereas even for the new post of Dy CEO, another panel of 3 RAS has to be sent to Election Commission and it is not known when this will be sent. Right now there is a vacancy on post of Assistant CEO where Anuj Bhardwaj was posted. But he has taken a long medical leave and thus the post is now lying vacant.

Anupama Sharma of Accounts Service, who was working on the post of Financial Advisor in the dept for a long time, was transferred last week on 4th October. It is worth wondering how the newly appointed Sanwar Mal will work at crucial time of polls without fully knowing the detailed workings of dept. At present, CEO Praveen Gupta is handling all the responsibilities singlehandedly like a ‘one-man army’. But with 6 vacant posts, it is not possible to run the huge and marathon work of elections properly and smoothly.

So, when will this matter get resolved?