Three officials have been suspended while ten others have been issued show cause notices by the election commission over serious breach in election duty. Poll authorities are under question after repeated incidents of misconduct by the officials reported from several places after the voting. Several reports of EVMs reaching late by days to strong rooms and being found at a hotel room has raised serious questions over the conduct of officials engaged in election duty.
The first in the sequence was a pre-poll incident where an official was found with EVMs in a private hotel in Shajapur district. Sector officer Sohanlal Bajaj and compounder Raees Mansoori were suspended after their video went viral on social media. A Naib Tehsildar Rajesh Mehra in Khurai of Sagar district was suspended after EVMs were returned after 48 hours of the polling. A senior poll authority said the EVM’s are mandated to be returned to strong rooms on the same day but the maximum permissible time considering geographical aspects is next day and not more than that.
Sources said that delay in returning of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) has attracted the ire of ECI. In a major violation of conduct by the election authorities the EVMs were returned to strong rooms three days after polling. In Shahdol district EVMs from Kotma municipality were returned on December 1. Chief electoral officer VL Kantha Rao on Monday addressed a press conference and dispelled the claims of Congress raising concerns on sanctity of election process and even raising allegation of tampering with machines.
CEO has also called a meeting of political parties on Tuesday to address their issues amid chaos over safety of EVM’s.
Rewa collector Priti Maithil who was heard giving shoot to kill order for safeguarding the EVM is also in soup as ECI has sought a report from CEO.
Earlier outage of LED panel outside Raisen and Bhopal located strong rooms for more than an hour had led to Congress demanding video footage of the lost hours. No power back-up arrangements were made in Bhopal and Raisen- considered to be a serious breach of conduct, said an official.
Later, Bhopal district administration admitted that power back-up arrangement was made after Congress staged a demonstration. The same day CEO asked all the district collectors to ensure power back up in strong rooms and was even reported that arrangement was made. But on Sunday evening similar episode repeated in Raisen district where LED display of strong room was out for around 10 minutes. A report has been sought by CEO in this case.
Rao said the cases of conduct violation by poll officials have been taken earnestly. Three officers have been suspended and ten have been issued show cause notices. Disciplinary action will be taken against those found in violation for which reports have been sent to the election commission.
