Cong to move EC over UP bureaucrats attending SP prog

Varanasi, Sep 4 (UNI) The Uttar Pradesh Congress today said it will move the Election Commission and the judiciary over the recent attendance of top bureaucrats at a function to mark the completion of three years of the Mulayam Singh Yadav government.

''We have got concrete evidence of open violation of service rules and conduct by state bureaucracy and sought time from the EC over this issue, besides the Kanya Vidyadhan and Unemployment Allowance issues, '' Congress Legislature Party leader Pramod Tewari told newspersons here.

''A bureaucracy that cannot say no to participation in programmes organised by the ruling party cannot play an impartial role in the conduct of the next assembly polls in UP,'' Mr Tewari said, adding the matter will also be brought to the notice of the judiciary for immediate review of service rules.

The issue was kicked off by the Congress, BJP and BSP over the presence of chief secretary Navin Chandra Bajpai and other senior officials in the SP office in Lucknow recently during a function organised on the occasion of Mulayam government completing three yrs in the chair.

Earlier also, Jaunpur District Magistrate Anurag Yadav was under scanner to have travelled on cycle, incidentally the election symbol of ruling SP.

The Congress leader further said the unemployment allowance and Kanya Vidyadhan were a mockery of democratic principles in the state, as the Mulayam government did even bother to introduce bills on both the issues in the legislature. ''Instead they went ahead with both the important programmes merely on the basis on government orders,'' he added.

Mr Tiwari also said Congress will move the EC on these two issues, as the twin exercises by UP government a few months prior to assembly polls were only made to garner electoral benefits.

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