Repolling in Nallah panchayat on June 6

Repolling in Nallah panchayat on June 6
Archit Watts
Tribune News Service

Jammu, June 3
Even as the panchayat elections are going on, objections and complaints of alleged rigging have flooded the office of the election authority, forcing it to decided on conducting re-polling in a few blocks.

In a recent incident at the Nallah panchayat in the Sunderbani block of Rajouri district, where elections were held on May 12, the election authority has decided to conduct re-polling on June 6, as Tirath Ram, a candidate for the post of sarpanch in the Nallah panchayat, had filed a complaint alleging that the counting process was unfair, as a few people had entered the counting room and destroyed ballot papers.

Acting on the complaint, Simrandeep Singh, SDM, Nowshera conducted an inquiry and submitted the report to the election authority. He stated in the report that the votes polled and the votes counted did not match. Talking to The Tribune, the SDM said, “There was clear negligence on the part of the returning officer and the assistant returning officer, as nearly seven ballots were destroyed. But both officers did not highlight the incident of loss of ballots and declared the results. So, an inquiry has been marked against them too”.

“I have requested the election authority to conduct the re-polling in the constituency. It has accepted my request and now the elections will be held on June 6,” he added.

The SDM said the High Court had also sought the status of the elections and the details of the panchayat area had been provided to the court. “The court has also agreed on the re-polling,” he said.

The officials conducting the elections also accepted the fact that they were receiving a large number of objections. The election authorities were looking into various aspects of the complaints before taking the final decision, they said.

However, repeated attempts to contact the Chief Electoral Officer, BR Sharma, proved futile.

Courtesy: The Tribune