AP govt, SEC locked in fresh round of wrangling on eve of poll notification

Amaravati, Jan 22 (PTI): The State Election Commission isall set to issue the notification on Saturday for the firstphase of elections to gram panchayats in Andhra Pradesh evenas the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government, which is vehementlyopposed to the conduct of the polls, informed the poll bodythat the time was not conducive for the exercise.

Also, the government's Special Leave Petition in theSupreme Court against a division bench order of the AndhraPradesh High Court giving the nod for conduct of the electionsfrom February 5 was found to be not in proper format by theRegistry, Law department sources said.

The bench on Thursday allowed the SEC's appeal against asingle judge's order on January 11 suspending the pollschedule.

In the state capital, a fresh round of wrangling brokeout between State Election Commissioner N Ramesh Kumar and thegovernment, with the latter asserting it would be ''ready toconduct the elections after 60 days of completion of firstround of (COVID-19) vaccination of frontline personnel whowould be involved in the polls.'' The government clearly adopted a defiant stance, whichbecame evident when the heads of the Panchayat Raj Departmentskipped an official meeting called by the SEC to discuss thepolls.

Panchayat Raj Principal Secretary Gopal Krishna Dwivediand Commissioner M Girija Shankar were, however, engaged indeliberations with the Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das afterwhich they drove to the Commission office and handed over athree-page letter of the CS late on Friday night.

The state government maintained it has taken a consistentstand that the present situation in the state is notconducive for conduct of elections and as and when the itimproves, the government would abide by the orders of the SEC.

In the letter, a copy of which was released to media, theChief Secretary turned down the SECs order for removal ofnine tainted officers, including two district Collectors anda Superintendent of Police, from duties forthwith.

The Chief Secretary requested the SEC to arrive at arevised schedule for the panchayat polls that would be incompliance with the letter and spirit of the court orderthat the parties will make all endeavor to ensure that bothprogrammes (elections and vaccination) are conducted smoothlyand successfully.

Earlier in the day, SEC Ramesh Kumar called on GovernorBiswabhusan Harichandan and apprised him of the high courtorder and also reportedly complained against ''the non-cooperative'' attitude of the state government.

Later, the SEC issued proceedings, asking the governmentto remove Collectors of Chittoor and Guntur districts besidesthe SP of Tirupati Urban.

''These officers have come under adverse notice of theCommission for their contributory failure in preventing theaberrations in the election process and for incidents of pollviolence found to be exceptionable. The recommendation of theCommission is binding on the state government as per settledpoll law,'' Ramesh Kumar said in the proceedings.

An additional SP, a Deputy SP and four inspectors ofpolice were among those sought to be removed by the SEC.

In his letter to the SEC, the Chief Secretary referred tothis directive and maintained that the officers in questionwere ''actively involved in the pandemic situation of COVID-19''and right now engaged in the implementation of the vaccinationprogramme.