Right To Information and social activist from the State capital Ajay Dube in a letter to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Election Commission of India (ECI) VS Sampath on Saturday urged to take serious action to conduct free and fair lok Sabha election in the State.
Dube said, “I would like to draw your attention to the serious kind of irregularities committed during the ongoing lok Sabha elections and seek prompt action from your end so that free and fair election could be conducted in the State.”
Dube said that in the First Phase of lok Sabha election in MP on April 10, a large number of EVMs were found to be defective and they were removed. It is a matter of grave concern that even after the mandatory check, the machines were found to be defective. According to our sources, 150 EVMs were replaced 50 in the district of Umaria, 15 in Rewa and 14 in Jabalpur, he added.
He said we have also come to know that the complaints regarding the EVMs were handled by locals instead of ECIl (Electronic Corporation of India ltd) which is a clear violation of norms of the ECI.He said the people from different sectors, engaged in election duty, have not been provided EDCs (Election Duty Certificates) which may deprive them from using postal ballot. As you would remember that the misuse of postal ballot in Sehore in the last lok Sabha elections was a big issue.
Dube also said that Joint Chief Electoral Officer of MP SS Bansal has recently got promoted which is very surprising and objectionable because the proposals of promotions of the officers from different departments have not been considered due to model code of conduct.
He said another major issue is that only common exit at the Airport is allowed to be used at the time of election, still Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been allowed to use separate exit at the Bhopal Airport which is a clear cut violation of the norms of ECI.
The RTI activist said that an employee of MP text book corporation Rajendra Pathak and brother of Guddan Pathak, BJP MlA from Bijawar, Chhattarpur district has been assigned election duty by the Bhopal Collector Nishant Barbade in contravention of the norms of ECI.
He said the Office of CEO (Chief Electoral Officer) of State in response to our RTI has informed us that 125 EVMs were found defective in the Vidhan Sabha elections last year which shows that the officials have not learnt any lesson from their mistake, hence there is a repetition of the same negligence He said that in order to conduct free and fair elections, it is important that all above mentioned issues must be taken care of.