Author: Times News Network &
Agencies
Publication: The Times of India
Date: November 5, 2003
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com:80/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=267264
Chief Election Commissioner J M
Lyngdoh on Tuesday criticised the officials of Chhattisgarh saying "they
are working more with a partisan and biased attitude".
"I wonder why we are talking here
because it appears we do not have any common ground," Lyngdoh told a meeting
of Collectors, SPs and IGs of the state, held to review arrangements for
the December 1 state polls.
"Even in Gujarat, officials were
more impartial but here it seems the state officials are more partisan
and biased," he said.
On complaints from the Opposition,
Lyngdoh also directed that no minister's staff or employees of his department
should be put on poll duty in the constituency of the minister.
The commission directed all the
district collectors to put up on notice board affidavits of the candidates
on their assets on the very same day of filing of their nominations and
the Election Commission be informed without delay.
Jogi , mired in controversy over
the IB letter issue as well as the tribal status issue which seems to dog
him each time he contests elections, has been in deep trouble after distributing
schoolbags with his photograph on them.
Apart from the schoolbags, the Opposition
has alleged that Jogi is using government media for propaganda and that
he has politicised bureaucrats. The Election Commission had in fact ordered
the transfer of two District Collectors and refused to entertain a Jogi
appeal against the order.
The Chhattisgarh chief minister,
wearing an injured look nowadays, has also complained to the Election Commission.
He has alleged that the BJP is misusing central media agencies for electioneering
and that it has been making "frivolous, false and fabricated" allegations
against him. What also has the Congress in Chhattisgarh up in arms is the
BJP manifesto that portrays Jogi as Hitler.
