CEC hints at transfer of officials in poll-bound states

Faizabad, UP, Dec 19 (UNI) Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami today said district level officials in the election-bound states, who have completed three years at a post, would be transferred out.

Talking to reporters here, Mr Gopalaswami said governments would be asked to transfer out officials at the district level who have completed three years at that place. Manipur, Uttrakhand and Punjab are set to go for assembly elections early next year. Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav had recently requested the Election Commission to hold polls in the state in February, 2007.

But the EC has so far not taken any decision.

The CEC is on a two-day visit to the state to review the poll preparedness. He reviewed the poll readiness of the East UP region here today.

Tomorrow, the CEC will review the poll preparation and progress of electoral rolls of Lucknow and Kanpur divisions. Mr Gopalaswamy is expected to leave for New Delhi the same evening.

The CEC also lamented the slow progress in the prepration of voter identity cards and said action would be initiated against officials responsible for the delay. ''The work for photo I cards would be completed by January 15, 2007,'' he added.

He said process of satisfying objections and complaints filed for glitches in the electoral rolls would be completed by January 3, 2007, following which the preprations for poll process in UP would be given a final shape.

Meanwhile, Election Commissioners S Y Qureshi and Navin Chawala are in Bareilly and Allahabad respectively yesterday to review the poll preprations there.

The CEC's visit gains importance after 21 poll observers were deputed by the EC to give their report on the electoral rolls and other preparations for the coming assembly polls in the state early next year.

The feed from the observers showed that though the introduct of booth-level officers proved effective in weeding out dead voters, there were many areas of concern that warranted the EC's intervention, which had led to this visit.

Over 2.4 million names of dead and shifted voters have been removed from the rolls so far.

The final publication of electoral rolls will be in the first week of January, 2007.

This is the third visit of the CEC to the state in last two months in connection with the electoral rolls and preparation for the assembly polls.

UNI XC-NAB VD KN1608