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EC deadline for IPS officer posting

AHMEABAD: The Election Commission has issued an order to the Gujarat government to appoint the senior IPS officer Satish Sharma Ahmedabad Joint Commissioner of Police, Sector-1, by Sunday evening.

It was issued on Saturday after Chief Secretary Manjula Subramaniam, who was summoned to appear before the EC on Sunday morning to explain the delay in the appointment, pleaded inability to be present due to her indisposition.

The appointment of Mr Sharma, in place of P.K. Jha, who was transferred on EC orders because of his alleged proximity to Minister of State for Home Amit Shah, BJP candidate in Sarkhej falling under Ahmedabad Sector-1, has become a bone of contention between the Commission and Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Government sources said though Mr Shah had cleared Mr Sharma’s appointment, at present Joint Director, State Anti-corruption Bureau, in Ahmedabad Sector-1, Mr. Modi had not signed the file for the past four days.

Earlier, when he was posted as Ahmedabad Joint Commissioner soon after the 2002 communal riots, Mr. Sharma took a stern attitude to trouble-makers.

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