The extent to which the Government machinery is lenient towards violators of its guidelines can be measured by the State Election Commission’s (SEC) gesture of allowing those candidates who contested the panchayat elections of 2008 and did not submit their expense statements, to contest the ensuing panchayat polls if they submit their expenses of previous polls by June 2.
The State Election Commission issued a public notice on Monday which stated that the candidates who contested in the Panchayat polls of 2008 and failed to submit their expense statements can now do so till June 2, failing which their nomination papers in these elections would be rejected during the scrutiny. It means that the SEC has given a very long rope to the violators of its guidelines even though it failed to take any action against the violators and the officials concerned even after six long years. When asked by this correspondent about this unnecessary magnanimity to the violators, the State Election Commissioner Subardhan merely said that the commission has given time to these violators and would not allow them to contest if they still fail. He said that normally the commission gives a time of one month for the candidates to file their expense statements. According to the SEC guidelines a member Village panchayat can spend a maximum amount of rS5,000, a Pradhan Village panchayat rS25,000,a member Block panchayat rS25,000 and a member District panchayat can spend rS70,000 in these elections.