By IANS
Ahmedabad : The Election Commission has sought details on transfers of 41 senior police officers in Gujarat last week, Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswamy said here Thursday, adding the state police should not be used in security arrangements for the forthcoming assembly polls.
Gopalaswamy, along with election commissioners Navin Chawala and S.Y. Qureshi, was on a two-day visit of the state where assembly elections are due by December.
Talking to reporters, he disclosed that there were strong suggestions that the commission should look into the recent transfers effected by the state administration and restore the pre-transfer position.
He said the commission asked for “a list of the officials” transferred in terms of the poll panel’s specific direction that all those officials who have completed three-year tenure at the same place should be transferred.
Referring to complaints received from various parties, the chief election commissioner said the Gujarat police should not be used in the assembly polls.
“They should be kept away,” he said, adding that the commission had conveyed to the state authorities what the various groups had said in this regard and there was no immediate response.
Asked what the commission proposed to do, he said: “We have earlier utilised outside forces elsewhere. We will do it in Gujarat also, if necessary”.
Gopalaswamy said the commission was “duty bound” to complete the election process for constituting the new state assembly by Dec 26, the day the tenure of the current 11th Vidhan Sabha expires.
He, however, declined to indicate the election dates, but he said that some parties had made the representation that the poll should be phased over two to four days.
“The commission is yet to take a call on this,” Gopalaswamy said.
The election commission also received a suggestion that the polling should commence at 8 a.m. rather than the usual 7 p.m., considering the winter season.
The chief election commissioner said that there was 81 percent progress in disbursement of electronic photo identity cards (EPICs), which he described as good.
He said the figure would go up to 84 percent in three days and by the polling time the percentage hopefully would rise to 90 percent and up to 95 percent in rural areas.
Asked whether names of all people displaced after the 2002 communal violence have been included in the voters’ list, the commission said the names have been enlisted according to the information made available to it.