IAS officer Abhishek Singh was removed from election duty in Gujarat by the Election Commission over a social media post. The IAS officer from UP cadre invited the ire of the EC on Friday after recently announcing his posting as General Observer for two poll constituencies on Instagram. In a sharply worded order, the EC announced action against the IAS officer over the social media post of joining election duty, calling it a “publicity stunt”.
"Now, it has come to the notice of the Commission that Sh. Abhishek Singh, IAS (UP:2011) has used social media platform "Instagram" for sharing his posting/joining as General Observer and used his official position as a publicity stunt," the EC said in an order.
The EC removed IAS officer Abhishek Singh from poll duty taking a “very serious view” of the matter. The bureaucrat has also been debarred from any election-related posting until further orders, the EC order added.
"Joined Ahmedabad as Observer for Gujarat Elections," the IAS officer had captioned the Instagram post while sharing photographs from his posting.
IAS officer Abhishek Singh had been appointed by the EC as General Observer for Gujarat Assembly Election Constituencies 49-Bapunagar and 56-Asarwa in Ahmedabad District. All government facilities provided to Singh for his observer duties have also been withdrawn with the removal. The election duty for the two constituencies has now been transferred to another IAS offer as an additional charge.
The upcoming 2022 Assembly Election in Gujarat will see polling held from December 1 to 5 across 182 constituencies in Gujarat. The result will be declared on December 8, 2022.
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