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Poll panel bans transfer of officials

The Election Commission has banned with immediate effect the transfer of any official connected with the forthcoming Lok Sabha and assembly poll work.

Chief Election Commissioner Dr M S Gill told the media that the ban covers, among others, district election officers, assistant district election officers, returning officers and assistant returning officers.

The transfers, if necessary for administrative convenience, must be approved by the Commission.

The model code of conduct applicable to political parties and candidates will become effective the moment the poll schedule is announced, he added.

Learning of the proposed transfer of five key election officials in Orissa, Dr Gill said he had asked the state government to take the necessary corrective measures in this regard.

The Commission, in order to ensure a free and fair election without much disturbances, has convened two meetings. One of these would be with leaders of the national parties on December 22 and the other with leaders of the states and regional political parties on December 23 to chalk out some new strategies.

The Commission felt that the LS candidates's election expenditure ceiling of Rs 450,000 was highly unrealistic, Dr Gill said. It has requested the government to raise the limit to ''some realistic level'' of around Rs 1.5 million for an average constituency size of 1.5 million voters.

As this has not been done, the Commission has decided to exclude four items from the list of candidates's expenditure. These include the cost of nomination forms, expenditure on security deposit and procurement of electoral rolls and the cost of issuing voters's identification slip.

UNI

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Polls may held in February-March
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