EC clarifies order on portraits in government offices
Faced with an outcry, the Election Commission modified its earlier directive that except images of Mahatma Gandhi and incumbent President and state Governors, there should be no other photograph in government or government undertaking offices.
Faced with an outcry, the Election Commission on Wednesday modified its earlier directive that except images of Mahatma Gandhi and incumbent President and state Governors, there should be no other photograph in government or government undertaking offices.
West Bengal's Chief Electoral Officer Debasish Sen clarified that except for the images of present day political leaders, photographs of national heroes could remain in government or semi government offices.
"There is no question of removing any photograph and image of national heroes from government and semi government offices," Sen said here after his communication with the Election Commission.
He said the Commission had clarified that it had no intention of hurting the sentiments of people.
The EC direction yesterday created a stir in the political circles with the state Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee terming the order as "absurd" and rejected the instruction to pull off images of Rabindranath Tagore and Subhas Chandra Bose from his office in the Writers' Buildings.
An agitated Bhattacharjee had said he would not abide by the EC directive and asked Chief Secretary Asok Mohan Chakraborty to get a clarification from the Commission.