Jalandhar, June 27
The State Election Commission (SEC) yesterday ordered the Returning Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner to get a criminal case registered against Sucha Singh, the sole candidate for the post of sarpanch of Chakrala village in Kartarpur, who submitted forged documents and an affidavit to get the papers of his rival candidates rejected on the plea that the latter had usurped panchayat land.
The aggrieved candidates have urged the SEC to postpone the elections to the Chakrala panchayat since they were found innocent during an inquiry conducted by the SDM and their nomination papers were rejected by the Returning Officer concerned on wrong submission.
According to information available here, Sucha Singh, a Congress-supported candidate and Harbhajan Singh, who was supported by the Shiromani Akali Dal along with his brother as the covering candidate filed nomination papers for the post of Chakrala sarpanch.
But, Sucha Singh, in an affidavit submitted to Returning Officer Ajmer Singh, alleged that Harbhajan Singh and his brother had usurped panchayat land. He allegedly submitted the forged registration deed and other revenue records to the Returning Officer as proof.
Subsequently, according to Harbhajan Singh, the Returning Officer concerned, without giving a chance to the former to present his case, ex-parte rejected his nomination papers along with those of his brother. Harbhajan Singh too up the matter with the District Magistrate, who reportedly asked the SDM to conduct an inquiry.
It was found during the inquiry that there was no land in the name of village panchayat. Thus, there was no truth in the allegation that Harbhajan Singh had encroached upon the land. The report was submitted to SEC, who in turn, ordered registration of a criminal case against Sucha Singh and inform about the action taken in this regard within 3 days.
Meanwhile, Harbhajan Singh has urged the Commission to defer elections in Chakrala village since they had been “wrongly” denied the right to contest the elections on fictitious grounds.
AMRITSAR: As many as 312 stations in this border district have been declared sensitive.
The district Electoral Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner, Mr Raminder Singh, said as many as 14,59,495 voters of the district would exercise their franchise to elect 1,289 panchayats on June 29. The district administration has deployed 164 returning and assistant returning officers along with 7,500 security personnel for smooth, peaceful and fair elections.
There were 2,798 candidates in the fray for the posts of sarpanch and 13,471 panch in the district. As many as 198 panchayats had been elected unanimously and 75 sarpanches and 79 panches were elected unopposed.
Prohibitory orders had been issued in the district banning the carrying of arms and weapons and the closure of all liquor shops till the election process was over.
