THE STATE government is likely to decide on Monday regarding the Election Commission of India’s (ECI’s) order to suspend and register cases against five officials over the alleged fraudulent registration of voters in two Assembly constituencies.Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to hold a meeting with Chief Secretary Manoj Pant on Monday.Following a meeting in Delhi on Wednesday, the ECI had given Pant seven days to act on its order to suspend four officers, remove a data entry operator, and file FIRs—a decision Pant is learnt to have said he would take only after consulting the state government.However, due to a few holidays, this consultation did not take place. “It was scheduled that the CM would consult the chief secretary on Monday to decide the further course of action. They will also seek legal opinion. Until now, the CM has been adamant on not taking action against those officials, but now, it is to be seen how the chief secretary will convince her,” a senior government official said.Banerjee is scheduled to convene a Cabinet meeting on Monday, the official said. “After that, she will go to north Bengal for a three-day tour. So, she will come back on either August 20 or 21 when the ECI’s deadline will be over. We are expecting that whatever decision will be taken, we will know on Monday,” the official added.Pant, who was summoned to Delhi over the non-compliance of the EC’s order last week to act against the five officials, reportedly met election commissioners Gyanesh Kumar, Vivek Joshi and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu for over an hour at the poll panel’s headquarters.In the meeting, he is understood to have told the EC that inquiries had been initiated against the officials and action would follow based on the findings.Story continues below this adThe meeting came days after Banerjee publicly vowed to protect state government employees. “We will not suspend them… I will continue to be your pehredar (guard),” she said at a public meeting in Jhargram last week. Earlier, Pant had written to the EC, calling the suspension and FIRs “disproportionately harsh” with a “demoralising impact” on Bengal’s officers’ community.Atri Mitra is a Special Correspondent of The Indian Express with more than 20 years of experience in reporting from West Bengal, Bihar and the North-East. He has been covering administration and political news for more than ten years and has a keen interest in political development in West Bengal. Atri holds a Master degree in Economics from Rabindrabharati University and Bachelor's degree from Calcutta University. He is also an alumnus of St. Xavier's, Kolkata and Ramakrishna Mission Asrama, Narendrapur. He started his career with leading vernacular daily the Anandabazar Patrika, and worked there for more than fifteen years. He worked as Bihar correspondent for more than three years for Anandabazar Patrika. He covered the 2009 Lok Sabha election and 2010 assembly elections. He also worked with News18-Bangla and covered the Bihar Lok Sabha election in 2019. ... Read MoreStay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd