Kolkata, Jan 23 (IANS): Before the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, the higher authorities of Kolkata Police have transferred as many as 55 inspector-level officers at one go.

Among those 55 officers, 45 have been posted as officer-in-charge of different police stations under different divisions of the city police, according to a notification on Tuesday morning.

Simultaneously, the West Bengal Police too have announced a massive overhaul in the base-level officers in the ranks of sub-inspectors. As many as 297 officers in the rank of sub-inspectors have been transferred from the different police stations under the jurisdiction of different police authorities to those under the different police commiserates in the state.

An official from the state police directorate said that this was the biggest transfer of officers in the ranks of inspectors and sub-inspectors in the recent past. Although officially the state government is describing the transfer as route one, sources in the state administration said most of them had been in their earlier postings for a period of three years or more.

“If the state government had not transferred them, the Election Commission of India would have ordered their transfer before the Lok Sabha polls. As per norms before any Lok Sabha or state Assembly election, any government official serving in a chair for a period of three years or more has to be transferred,” a state government official explained.

In the recent past, Rajeev Kumar was appointed as the acting director general of the state police following the retirement of his predecessor Manoj Malviya. It followed the transfer of some key Indian Police Service (IPS) officers both in West Bengal Police as well as in Kolkata Police