SEC, UP govt spat over model code

Lucknow, Oct 21 (UNI) The spat between the Mulayam Singh Yadav regime in Uttar Pradesh and the State Election Commission (SEC) continued with the latter forcing the state government to withdraw its decision transferring 13 Indian Police Service (IPS) officers yesterday.

State Election Commissioner Aparmita Prasad Singh had registered strong protest over the transfer orders (TO) claiming it a gross violation of model code of conduct in wake of the urban local body polls next week.

''We have directed the government to immediately roll back the TO as no prior permission was taken from SEC,'' a Commission official said here today.

Meanwhile, the government today withheld the TO issued last night affecting change of police superintendents of Etawah, Allahabad, Mainpuri, Ferozabad, Kanpur Dehat (rural), Lakhimpur Kheri and Lalitpur districts.

Earlier, the SEC had forced a ban on holding of functions by the Chief Minister to distribute unemployment allowance and 'Kanya Vidya Dhan' cheques after Governor T V Rajeswar wrote a strong letter to the SEC.

Although the model code of conduct is in force, the government had decided to accord six cities -- Lucknow, Kanpur, Meerut, Agra, Varanasi and Allahabad -- with metro status.

However, Mr Yadav today castigated the SEC for not allowing him to announce sops for policemen during the annual Martyrs day parade.

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