Election Commission sets off poll process, bars transfers

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kicking off the local body election process, the State Election Commission has directed the government not to transfer officials of government departments until the election process is over. The directive came into effect on Monday.

State election commissioner K. Sasidharan Nair sent a letter to chief secretary Jiji Thomson in this regard.

Transfer of officials of government departments, state public sector undertakings, statutory boards and corporations is restricted.  

Any unavoidable transfers should be done only with the consent of the Election Commission.

The Election Commission also directed the government to fill the vacancies of officials who would have to be engaged for poll-related duties.

The commission commenced the process of deploying officials for poll-related duties.