No change in IT chief's supervision: EC official after work order revision

A senior Election Commission official on Thursday said that there had been no change in the supervisory structure for its director general of information technology, a day after the poll authority revised its work allocation order, reported news agency PTI.

Under the order issued on Wednesday, DG (IT) Seema Khanna will be supervised by newly appointed deputy election commissioner Prakash Raj Purohit instead of senior deputy election commissioner Manish Garg. Khanna, an NIC officer, is also at the centre of a controversy over the alleged centralisation of digital electoral roll infrastructure and restrictions built into election software systems.

The clarification came in response to a question on whether Khanna had reported directly to the Commission, comprising the Chief Election Commissioner and the two Election Commissioners, between July 28 and November 4 without the additional supervisory layer of a deputy election commissioner.

The issue arose after Garg issued an order on July 28 directing Khanna to report directly to the Commission. He issued the order after deputy election commissioner Sanjay Kumar, to whom Khanna had been reporting, was transferred to the Delhi government.

Election Commissioners SS Sandhu and Vivek Joshi objected to the order, following which it was kept in abeyance.

In a press note issued following The Indian Express's report, the poll body said, "The work redistribution orders issued by the concerned officer were not actually implemented following the orders of the two Commissioners, and oversight of the IT division by the DEC was never actually withdrawn."

“Since the order was not implemented, Khanna was supervised by Garg after Sanjay Kumar moved out of the EC. Now, she will report to Raj Purohit, who joined as deputy EC a few days ago,” the official told PTI.

Garg was designated as the “link officer” for Sanjay Kumar, meaning that Kumar's allocated responsibilities passed to Garg after Kumar left the Election Commission.

The Commission's position is that Khanna continued to work under Garg's supervision after Kumar's departure and will now report to Purohit under the revised allocation of duties.- EndsInputs from PTI