M A I N   N E W S

EC, election observers to meet today

New Delhi, April 8
The Election Commission has convened a meeting of election observers here tomorrow to discuss measures for the smooth conduct of the assembly elections in five states on May 10.

EC sources said today that Chief Election Commissioner M.S. Gill would address an estimated 550 observers, appointed by the commission, to ensure that the elections were conducted in “an independent and impartial manner.” The two Election Commissioners — J.M. Lyngdoh and T. K. Krishnamurthy — would attend the meeting.

Special directives would be issued to the observers for conducting the poll besides making them conversant with the functioning of electronic voting machines which are to be used in the Assembly elections.

The Assembly elections are scheduled to be held in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry. The EC has already announced some precautionary measures for the smooth conduct of elections in the sensitive areas. UNI 

Vincent’s wife asked to explain

Mumbai, April 8
The government has written to Ms Lily George, wife of Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s personal secretary Vincent George, against whom the CBI has filed a case for allegedly owning assets disproportionate to her known sources of income, to explain “the compassionate grounds” under which she applied for allotment of a petrol station.

“Given the fact that during that time, George was attached to the Prime Minister’s Office, it is hard to believe that the couple was in bad position economically,” Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Ram Naik said here last night. He said the government would certainly like to find out if the “compassionate grounds” on which she was allotted the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation petrol station in east Delhi in 1991, still existed even after 10 years.

Stating that the file pertaining to the allotment was “missing”, Mr Naik said the government would like to ascertain if the grounds were valid now on which the then Petroleum Minister (Satish Sharma) had allotted the station. PTI