EC promises to look into Oppositions complaints

The Election Commission today said it would verify the complaints against a section of bureaucrats and police officers it had received from representatives of various political parties in UP.

Addressing the media,Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami,who is currently visiting the state along with the two Election Commissioners,Navin Chawala and S Y Quraishi,said the commission had apprised the officers about our concern for free and fair polls.

At their meetings with the commission on Wednesday,the Samajwadi Party had demanded removal of Chief Secretary A K Gupta,Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh,Additional Cabinet Secretary V S Pandey,Principal Secretary (Home) Fateh Bahadur Singh,DGP Vikarm Singh,and ADG (Law and Order) Brij Lal. The BJP had also demanded removal of some officers,including Fateh Bahadur Singh.

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Today,the EC held a meeting with the officers posted in field to review the poll preparedness. It asked the district magistrates to prepare vulnerability map of their areas. The ECs focus now is on the appointment of micro-observers.

The commission saw merit in the request of political parties that the candidates should get the same voters list that was made available to the polling party at a polling station. This is an important point. We would look into this, he said.

Gopalaswami said polls would be held simultaneously in eastern UP and western Bihar. Similarly,these will be held simultaneously in southern UP and adjoining parts of MP and Chhattisgarh. This had been done because of the concern over possibility of cross-border movement on the polling day.

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