Tandon: Going easy

Patna, Sept. 21: The Election Commission has found Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar guilty of violating the model code of conduct in Bihar but spared him the rod because it was the first time the senior Maharasthra politician had done so.

Chief election commissioner B.B. Tandon, now in Bihar with his full team, said: ?The commission examined the reply submitted by him (Pawar) wherein he had denied having violated the code. We considered the entire case and reviewed the CD. We concluded that he had violated the model code.?

?In the second part of his reply, the minister had expressed regret for inadvertently violating the model code, if at all. Since this was the first such case, we advised him not to do so in future.?

Pawar, during an election meeting at Motipur in Muzaffarpur district, had reportedly promised to get the closed sugar mills of the region revived if the RJD-Congress-NCP alliance came to office in Bihar.

The CEC promised that other cases of model code violation are under examination and action will ?certainly be taken? against all offenders, ?whoever the person may be?. The second prominent case is against RJD president Laloo Prasad Yadav and his ministerial colleague Prem Gupta, who travelled to Nirvachan Sadan ?for political purpose? in their official vehicles.

Tandon said the district election officer had submitted his report to the chief electoral officer, who has sought further clarifications. ?We will take a decision when we get the full reply,? he added.

Earlier, chief secretary G.S. Kang said all ?tainted? district magistrates and police superintendents have been replaced in the state. ?We are also trying to comply with the Election Commission?s directive to change all poll-related officials posted at a place for three years or more. There is a shortage of officials and we are trying our best,? he added.

The chief secretary said the state will receive 174 companies of central paramilitary forces for election work. ?The companies are already arriving and being sent directly to the blocks. They will be assigned work very soon. We expect to deploy paramilitary personnel as static force at 80 to 85 per cent of the polling booths. These forces will not sit in the district headquarters as used to be the case earlier,? he added.

More than 92,000 non-bailable arrest warrants, claimed Kang, have been executed but the state now faces the problem of accommodating the accused in its jails, which have a maximum capacity of 20,000 inmates. The CEC said the progress on this front was good but the commission was not happy with the ?quality? of warrants executed.

The administration also notified the posting of new superintendents of police in eight districts, including Siwan and Saran (Chhapra), Vaishali and Nalanda. R.S. Bhatti, back from central deputation, will be the Siwan police superintendent while Jagmohan will be his counterpart in neighbouring Saran.

Farmers abducted

After the kidnapping of DAV student Gaurav Kumar alias Golu yesterday, two farmers of Champaran were abducted this morning, reports our correspondent.

The two, residents of a village in Bagaha police district (West Champaran), were abducted near Parsauni, superintendent of police Shahrukh Majid said.

Back in the capital, police were yet to make any breakthrough in the Gaurav case.