A group of retired civil servants and former diplomats on Tuesday expressed concerns about a recent order issued by Assam’s special chief secretary for environment deploying about 1,600 personnel of the state’s forest protection force for duties related to the upcoming Assembly elections.

Citing a March 26 report by NorthEast Now about the deployment, the former bureaucrats said in an open letter to the state administration that the decision to depute Assam Forest Protection Force personnel for polling duty directly contravened legal and administrative norms.

The order was issued on March 19, according to the news portal.

Assam will hold the elections on April 9 and the votes will be counted on May 4. The state administration has been reporting to the Election Commission since the Model Code of Conduct took effect on March 15.

The guidelines of the Election Commission state that territorial forest forces and serving forest officials, including senior officers of the Indian Forest Service, are not to be requisitioned or deployed for duties relating to elections, said the Constitutional Conduct Group.

“These instructions [of the poll panel] are designed to ensure that critical ecological protection and forest governance functions are not put at risk during elections,” it said, adding that the group was “alarmed to find that the guidelines...

Read more