The Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee (CGPCC) on Monday urged the State Election Commission (SEC) to enforce fresh model code of conduct for conducting polls in as many as 150 civic bodies in the State excluding Raipur Municipal Corporation (RMC).
A delegation of senior Congress leaders met and handed over a memorandum to State Election Commissioner PC Dalei to apprise him of their demands.
“While hearing a petition, filed by two local Corporators, to cancel RMC polls on the basis disproportionately dividing the population of seven villages recently included in the civic body’s limit among different wards, a divisional bench of Chhattisgarh High Court (Bilaspur) had on November 14 ordered a stay on conducting RMC polls” said CGPCC spokesperson, Shailesh Nitin Trivedi, in the memorandum.
Referring to the court’s order, he added that the court has not mentioned to put a stay on polls for other civic bodies and thus, the State Election Commissioner should enforce fresh model code of conduct for conduct of polls for nine Municipal Corporations, 39 Municipal Councils and 103 Nagar Panchayats in the State.
The delegation members added in the memorandum that if civic bodies’ polls will be not be conducted in December, this year, then it will take four months to prepare new voters’ list, inviting claims and objections and completing other procedures after January 1, 2015. They urged the State Election Commission to protect constitutional rights of common man by conducting the polls in other civic bodies as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, a number of Congress party workers led by Raipur district Congress Committee’s President, Vikas Upadhyay submitted a memorandum to the district Collector and District Election Officer while urging him to take appropriate action against the officials concerned for showing negligence in completing the process of delimitation of Raipur Municipal Corporation.