Next lot of Raj IAS officers to leave for election duty this weekend

Jaipur: The third lot of IAS officers from the State, who were scheduled to leave for election duty, will leave on the coming weekend. Before this, 16 IAS officers in the first lot and 7 IAS in the second lot had already left for election duty and this weekend, 16 officers will leave for the same as the Election Commission had shortlisted 52 Rajasthan cadre IAS officers to carry out election-related duty owing to the Lok Sabha polls.

For the seventh and last phase of the election to be held on June 1, our officials will carry out their designated role for which they will leave on May 13. Which officer will serve where and from when is decided by the Election Commission.

The 16 officers, who leave for election duty and their respective states where they will carry out the roles, are Ajitabh Sharma (Telangana), T Ravikanth (West Bengal), KK Pathak (Andhra Pradesh), Jitendra Soni (Andhra Pradesh), BL Goyal (Uttar Pradesh, Bachanesh Agrawal (Gujarat), Kumar Pal Gautam (West Bengal), Khajan Singh (Andhra Pradesh), Punam (Karnataka), Sitaram Jat (Andhra Pradesh), HP Sharma (Karnataka), Anandhi (Maharashtra), Manju Rajpal (Andhra Pradesh), Priyanka Goswami (Odisha) and Neha Giri (Gujarat).

Every batch will have to stay in their allotted constituency for a minimum period of 25 days. Reportedly, Kunji Lal Meena is extremely happy with his responsibility since he has to carry out the election role in Uttarakhand which covers Yamunotri, Gangotri, and Mussoorie. These 25 days are a ‘blessing in disguise’ for Meena as through this, he could carry out the ‘Teerth Yatra’ while also spending time in hill station Mussoorie, away from the summer heat of the plains.

The first lot of officers will return to the state on April 22, having conducted the first phase of polls on April 19. Similarly, P Ramesh is serving in the deep interior area of the northeast in the Naga community area including Dimapur and Kohima. A native of Hyderabad, P Ramesh is happy that through the election duty, he has been able to experience and understand another corner of the nation.

However, through this election duty ‘roster’ of state cadre IAS officers, the DoP’s work seems to have increased, as the orders related to the additional charge on the posts of those officials who are leaving have to be issued. The DoP has had to work on various ‘permutations’ to ascertain which officer can do justice to the additional charge being given. The officers of the first lot, who are returning on April 22, will also be given an additional charge.

The administrative corridors are abuzz with one question: The second phase of polling in Rajasthan will take place on April 26 and the result will be declared on June 4, after 40 days. So will the Model Code of Conduct be in effect for these 40 days in the State? Because after April 26, there will not be any need nor logic for the Code of Conduct to be in effect in the State.

Administrative experts believe that it is possible that some relaxation may be given for the 40 days and it is also possible that the Election Commission may permit various issues on request of the State Government. Sources believe that with this permission, a transfer list of IAS and RAS officers may be released in the first week of May