M A I N   N E W S

EC pulls up Amritsar ex-DC
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 21
After getting Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to pay for the use of official helicopter for election work, the Election Commission (EC) today pulled up the recently removed Amritsar Deputy Commissioner K.S. Pannu for submitting wrong information to the commission.

The EC today said Pannu, before he was removed as the Deputy Commissioner of Amritsar, in his reports stated that the Chief Minister of Punjab never visited Amritsar (South) Assembly constituency by helicopter and stated that he came to Amritsar by road.

Pannu stated that no instance had ever been reported where SGPC employees had been found to be deployed for performing various elections related activities by the SAD.

The documents subsequently made available to the commission indicated that Pannu made no effort to get the information required by the commission resulting in suppression of the information and withholding it from the commission.

In spite of a positive direction of the commission, the Deputy Commissioner made no contribution to assist the commission in finding the actual position in the matter.

The lacklustre attitude in such important matter was undesirable and the commission had considered that such undesirable act amounted to concealing of the facts and dereliction of duty.

Pannu has been asked to furnish an explanation as to why action should not be taken against him for such a conduct on his part. Pannu has to reply by tomorrow.

Bogus votes cancelled
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, May 21
The district electoral officer today cancelled all bogus votes found in the voters list at Kanganwal village. Now only, 184 voters will choose the village sarpanch and Panchayat members against the 884 listed earlier.

The decision to delete the votes was taken in the evening after consulting the state Election Commission, additional electoral officer Priyank Bharti said. The Tribune had carried a news report today highlighting the high number of bogus votes in the village.