In a reprimand to the Digvijay Singh government, the Election Commission has suspended revision of electoral rolls in two districts of Madhya Pradesh in protest against the state government’s sitting over the transfer of two bureaucrats, who were held responsible for bunglings in electoral rolls.The Commission today shot off a letter to the State Chief Secretary — the second in a row. The letter orders ‘‘stay forthwith of all work relating to revision of electoral rolls in the districts of Khargone and Shahdol till further orders’’.With this the controversy on the irregularities in MP electoral list and the subsequent stand-off between the government and the EC refuses to die down. The Commission had ordered the suspension of four district magistrates and action against three other officials for the irregularities.Two of them - Alka Upadhaya and Ashok Kumar Shah, collectors of Khargone and Shahdol respectively, had gone to the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), which had stayed the EC’s orders. Thereafter, the EC had challenged the CAT order in the high court and got an interim order on March 14, which directed the state government to transfer the two District Collectors.The Digvijay Singh government has been sitting on action against other officials on the plea that the issue has become subjudice.
