KOLKATA: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday directed the replacement of four District Magistrates in West Bengal before the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, sources in the office of the state’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said.

The four districts where the replacement of the DMs has been ordered by the ECI, include East Midnapore, East Burdwan, Jhargram and Birbhum.

Sources in the CEO’s office said that none of these DMs are Indian Administrative Service (IAS) cadre officers and all of them belong to the West Bengal Civil Service (Executive) category.

The latest transfers are indicative of how closely the bureaucracy and the police administration in West Bengal are being scrutinised by the poll panel.

At the beginning of this week the ECI had ordered the replacement of the Acting Director General of Police, Rajeev Kumar, with a 1988-batch IPS officer Vivek Sahay.

However, within 24 hours the ECI replaced Vivek Sahay with a 1989-batch IPS officer Sanjay Mukherjee.