Govt notifies dates, panel awaits answers - Issues need to be sorted out: Pande

OUR BUREAU

State election commissioner Mira Pande and political leaders at the all-party meeting on Friday. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta Calcutta, May 17: The Bengal government today issued a notification for the panchayat polls to be held on July 2, 6 and 10 but the state election commission said it would issue its matching notification only after sorting out issues such as the district-wise break-up. "We are not going to issue our notification this week. Let's see when we do it. There are a number of issues that need to be sorted out before we can go ahead," state election commissioner Mira Pande said. Commission officials cited two main issues that the poll panel wanted to discuss with the government early next week. One, it wanted a 6-5-6 distribution of the 17 districts among the three dates as opposed to the government's 9-4-4 formula; two, it wanted its security concerns addressed. The government notification, a copy of which was sent to the commission's office at 2pm, has scheduled the counting of votes for July 13 so that the poll process can conclude by the July 15 deadline set by a division bench of Calcutta High Court. The commission also filed an application with the division bench today to delete certain references in the order issued on Tuesday. ( ) The election process cannot begin without a matching notification from the poll panel, which must come by June 3 if polling has to begin by July 2. Once the commission issues its notification, a seven-day nomination process can start, to be followed by a 21-day period for campaigning before voting can be held. The state government, which wanted the polls on June 24, 27 and 30, has accepted the panel's suggestion of July 2, 6 and 10 but not its recommendation on the distribution of districts. According to the government notification, Burdwan, West and East Midnapore, Bankura, Purulia, North and South 24-Parganas, Howrah and Hooghly will go to the polls on July 2. Malda, Murshidabad, Birbhum and Nadia will vote on July 6 and Jalpaiguri, Cooch Behar and North and South Dinajpur on July 10. The commission feels it will be "extremely difficult" to make adequate security arrangements for a nine-district phase. Its officials said these nine accounted for some 32,000 of the 57,015 booths in the 17 districts. "For over a year, we have been insisting on an equitable distribution of districts. The government ignored that in its previous three announcements and did so this time too," a commission official said. Besides, he said, the commission is not convinced that adequate security is in place even for the seven-day nomination phase, and that this is one of the reasons the poll panel does not want to "rush" into issuing a notification. "Once the commission issues its notification, the nomination phase would start, but the government has not told us what security arrangements have been made for this phase," he said. "We had asked for 300 companies of central forces for this phase but the division bench order does not mention this." Commission secretary Tapas Ray pointed out that the division bench, while setting a May 17 deadline for the government's notification, set none for the poll panel's notification. "So, if we don't issue the matching notification now, it does not amount to contempt of court," Ray said in reply to a question. The commission will hold a series of meetings with its legal team and the administrations of the 17 poll-bound districts. Early next week, it is expected to meet the government to try and sort out differences. This afternoon, the commission conducted a 110-minute all-party meeting where the Left and the Congress objected to the dates and the district distribution besides voicing concern over security. "We want 800 companies of central forces," CPM state secretariat member Rabin Deb said, echoing a demand the poll panel has made. "Without adequate security, the commission must not go ahead with the election process." The Congress backed the Left and also demanded a change of polling dates. "Rath Yatra falls on July 10; the holy month of Ramazan begins on July 11. It's best if the polls are wrapped up by July 9," Congress leader Manas Bhunia said. Trinamul leaders Partha Chatterjee and Subrata Bakshi claimed the government had done "everything" according to the commission's wishes this time. They said the party was "hopeful" that the poll panel would do whatever was necessary to conduct timely elections. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130518/jsp/frontpage/story_16912366.jsp