EC blows whistle on sops

DELHI/MUMBAI, Dec 11: Taking a serious view of the pre-poll largesse announced in Maharashtra, the Election Commission (EC) has asked the S...

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DELHI/MUMBAI, Dec 11: Taking a serious view of the pre-poll largesse announced in Maharashtra, the Election Commission (EC) has asked the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government not to dole out any sops to the voters.

The EC order comes promptly after the State Election Department (SED) submitted a comprehensive report on "populist" decisions taken by the Sena-BJP government on Tuesday. Talking to newsmen Chief Electoral Officer D K Shankaran said “We have been directed to submit a daily report on the decisions taken by the State Government. Accordingly, we submitted a report to the Election Commission.”

In a message to Maharashtra secretary, the Commission has asked the State to make sure that the sanction for the announced projects was not given. The Commission said this could be seen as offering election-eve gifts to the electorate. It wanted all parties to have a level playing field.

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On Tuesday, the alliance government had announced a free housing scheme for the 20 lakh residents of old and dilapidated buildings in the metropolis, hiked the minimum wage for 83 lakh agriculture labourers and declared Mayor-in-Council system for Mumbai and Nagpur Municipal corporations.

Shankaran said along with the transfers of District Collectors and Superintendents of Police, the Commission has now banned the transfers of Station House Officers of police stations with immediate effect.

Replying to a question, Shankaran said he has convened a meeting of all the District Collectors on December 16 to review the poll preparations.

In a similar move, the EC has also asked the Punjab Government to desist from offering any more sops. The Akali Dal government in Punjab had offered free electricity to Dalits.

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Besides issuing the directive, the Commission members today also called on President K R Narayanan and discussed a range of poll issues during a 90-minute meeting. Narayanan hoped that it would be a model general election and all political parties would ensure that criminal elements were kept out.

No official word from EC, says Chief Secretary

Chief Secretary S Subramanian today said that there is no official communication from the Election Commission about its directive on the decisions taken by the State Government on Tuesday. “So far, we have not received any communication from the E C,” Subramanian told The Indian Express.

Meanwhile, a senior official said though the proposal was pending before the State Cabinet since September 1997, the decision to grant free houses to the 20 lakh residents of old and dilapidated buildings violated the code of conduct. “Sukthankar Committee had recommended that one third cost should be recovered, while the Cabinet decided to grant houses free of cost. This certainly violated the code of conduct,” the official said.