Poll panel head questions BMC chief’s extension

A proposal to extend municipal commissioner Subo-dh Kumar’s tenure by six mon-ths has landed the state government in trouble as it forwarded the recommendation to the Centre without seeking the state election commission's (SEC) permission.

A proposal to extend municipal commissioner Subo-dh Kumar’s tenure by six mon-ths has landed the state government in trouble as it forwarded the recommendation to the Centre without seeking the state election commission's (SEC) permission.

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With the civic polls scheduled on February 16, the government should have sought the SEC’s nod as per the election code.

An irked state election commissioner Neela Satyanarayan, who had asked the chief secretary to explain the state government’s conduct, said, “It is desirable that key officers handling the election process (Kumar is chief election officer in BMC) must not be displaced till the poll process is over. But I'm not sure whether Kumar will get an extension. I have asked the state government as to why the SEC was not consulted before the proposal was moved.”

Though Satyanarayan refus-ed to divulge details of the explanation that chief secretary Ratnakar Gaikwad gave her on Tuesday, she said, “I will take a final call on this very soon."

Kumar, a senior IAS officer, who is scheduled to retire on January 31, 2011, is already in trouble as the Opposition has accused him of violating election code by seeking undue publicity for a proposal to construct a coastal ring road in the city and suburbs.