Election Commission appoints five new SSPs in Punjab

The Election Commission of India has appointed senior superintendents of police in five districts of Punjab, the state's Chief Electoral Officer Sibin C said on Friday.

The announcement comes a day after the Election Commission transferred ''non-cadre'' district magistrates and superintendents of police in some states.

The Punjab poll officer said Deepak Pareek has been posted as the SSP of Bathinda and Ankur Gupta as the SSP of Jalandhar Rural.

Simrat Kaur has been appointed as the SSP of Malerkotla, Suhail Qasim Mir as the SSP of Pathankot and Pragya Jain as the SSP of Fazilka, he said in an official statement.

The EC said it has adopted a tough stance against posting non-cadre officers to leadership positions by transferring eight non-encadred SPs/SSPs and five non-encadred DMs in Punjab, Odisha, Gujarat and West Bengal.

Officials had pointed out that SSP Bhatinda Harnanbir Singh Gill was transferred by the EC as a ''pre-emptive measure'' as he is the brother of Congress MP from Khadoor Sahib Jasbir Singh Gill.

Polling for 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab will be held on June 1.