AP Panchayat Polls: SEC censures 2 top IAS officers for "dereliction" of duty; State govt rejects

The State Election Commission(SEC) in Andhra Pradesh has censured two senior IAS officersfor alleged dereliction of duty in their work related to thegram panchayat elections.

A day after the SEC wrote to it, the state government onWednesday rejected the recommendation that the censure wouldbecome part of their service records and would communicate thedecision in a proper manner to the poll body, an officialsource said.

In the letter to Chief Secretary Adityanath Das, StateElection Commissioner N Ramesh Kumar said Principal SecretaryGopal Krishna Dwivedi and Commissioner of Panchayat Raj MGirija Sankar failed to carry out their duties in preparingthe latest electoral rolls for the Gram Panchayat polls.

On Monday, Ramesh Kumar had told a press conference thatas result of the 'dereliction' of duty by the two officials,the SCE was forced to conduct the elections on the basis ofJanuary 2019 electoral rolls.

He had also claimed that over 3.50 lakh first time voterswho attained the age of 18 missed the chance to exercise theirfranchise in the polls, to be held in four phases next month.

The SEC had said the censure would become part of theservice record of the two officials.

A top government source said that SECs recommendationwas rejected by the state government on the ground that thecommission was not the competent authority to initiate suchaction.

''The state government would not be considering thatcensure. It is one sided. The SEC did not seek explanationfrom the officials before issuing the censure. The SEC is notthe competent authority. We will inform the SEC in a propermanner about the governments intention,'' the source told PTI.

Talking to reporters on Wednesday, Ramesh Kumar said hewas not vindictive against the two officials and if theychanged their 'attitude', there could be a chance for him torethink on the censure action.

The Y S Jagan Mohan government and the SEC have been atloggerheads over the conduct of the local body elections withthe former seeking postponement of the exercise, citing theCOVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing vaccination programme.

While a single judge bench of the Andhra Pradesh HighCourt earlier this month suspended the SEC's poll schedule, adivision bench, allowing an appeal by the poll body, latergave the go ahead for the elections.

In a setback to the state government, the Supreme Courton January 25 dismissed its appeal against the high courtorder saying, 'We cannot be part of this ego battle'.

The SEC on January 23 issued the notification for thegram Panchayat elections to be conducted in four phases fromFebruary 5, with the nomination process scheduled to begin onMonday.

However, it later rescheduled the first phase whileleaving the previous schedule for the subsequent phasesunaltered.