After internal row, Election Commission restores oversight on IT head

The Election Commission has issued an order restoring the oversight on its information technology department head through a deputy poll commissioner, The Hindu reported.

An internal order issued on July 28 by Senior Deputy Election Commissioner Maneesh Garg had removed Deputy Election Commissioner Sanjay Kumar from the charge of the information technology and communications divisions. It had allowed Director General of Information Technology Seema Khanna to directly report to the commission.

A day later, two Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, had written to Cabinet Secretary TV Somanathan expressing concerns about the work allocation order issued by Garg, an investigation by The Indian Express showed on September 23. Garg held the interim charge of the administration department at the time.

This came against the background of Joshi in May having flagged that there was a “gradual centralisation of the electoral roll database” and proposed an audit to certify that “no one, except the concerned statutory authorities, has credentials to make any change in the database”.

In August, Sandhu also recorded that state-level election officials were reporting they “don’t have proper and complete access” to the digital system through which the poll body maintains the electoral roll.

He flagged that Khanna “doesn’t have any legal authority to restrict proper and complete access and freedom to operate, as...

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