EC says NITI Aayog VC violated poll code

The Election Commission on Friday expressed 'displeasure' over NITI Aayog vice chairman Rajiv Kumar's remarks against the Congress' proposed minimum income scheme 'NYAY' and said the comments violated the model code of conduct norms.

In a communication sent to Kumar, the EC asked him to be cautious in future while making statements.

The EC asserted that the public servants should not only be impartial in their conduct but also in their public utterances, 'which was found wanting in the instant case'.

On March 27, the poll panel had sought Kumar's response on his remarks in which he had attacked the Congress over its minimum income guarantee promise.

The EC had felt that since Kumar is a bureaucrat, his remarks were prima facie violative of the model code.

Kumar is learnt to have told the Election Commission that he spoke against Congress's Nyuntam Aay Yojna (Nyay) scheme as an economist and not as part of the policy body.

The commission, in its letter, said that it considered his reply and has not found it to be satisfactory.

At a press conference here on March 25, Congress president Rahul Gandhi announced that 20 per cent families belonging to the poorest category will be given Rs 72,000 each annually as minimum income if his party comes to power.

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EC replaces AP Chief Secretary, CM dares Centre to arrest him

The Election Commission on Friday removed Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary Anil Chandra Punetha from the post and appointed senior-most Indian Administrative Service officer L V Subrahmanyam of the 1983 batch in his place.

The EC stated this in a communication to the Andhra Pradesh government.

Earlier, the EC had removed two top bureaucrats from their posts during election time.

The EC also directed that Punetha, scheduled to retire from service May-end, be posted to a 'non-election' position.'

Punetha had filed a writ petition in the Andhra Pradesh high court on March 27 challenging the EC order, transferring the Director General of Intelligence A B Venkateswara Rao.

He contended that the EC did not have any 'untrammelled powers' to interfere with the course of administration that is unconnected to polling.

"The EC cannot engage in unchecked, arbitrary and uncanalised exercise of power. The EC order suffers from the vice of lack of jurisdiction, suffers from being a colourable exercise of power and is based on alien purposes or oblique motives which have nothing to do with the conduct of polling duties," state Political Secretary (General Administration Department) N Srikant had said in the petition, filed on behalf of the chief secretary.

Punetha had complied with the EC order on Tuesday midnight and transferred the Intelligence DG, along with two district SPs, but cancelled the Intelligence chiefs transfer order Wednesday morning, after the Chief Minister allegedly raised a hue and cry.

The High Court had rejected the chief secretary's petition last Friday, forcing him to issue an order shifting the DG intelligence.

Reacting to the removal of the chief secretary, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrabau Naidu dared the Centre to arrest him and demanded that the Election Comission give reasons for the removal of the chief secretary.

"First they (ECI) transferred a district Collector. Then the Intelligence DG and two district SPs and now the CS. Why? They did not give any reasons," he said, addressing a road show in Visakhapatnam.

Naidu went to add that he too might be arrested.

"They may also arrest me tomorrow or day after. I am prepared to go to jail.I will fight from there itself," he said.

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party MP G V L Narasimha Rao said the Chief Secretary became a 'scapegoat' of Chandrababu Naidu.

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EC replaces Kolkata police commissioner, 3 other Bengal top cops

The Election Commission of India on Friday night transferred Kolkata Police Commissioner Anuj Sharma and Bidhannagar Police Commissioner Gyanwant Singh ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

Dr Rajesh Kumar, ADG, Pollution Control Board, was made the new Kolkata top cop, while the poll body named Natarajan Ramesh Babu, Additional Director General and Inspector General of Police, Operations, as the Bidhannagar police commissioner, an EC letter addressed to the West Bengal chief secretary said.

It also named Avannu Ravindranath, DC (Airport Division) of Bidhannagar, as the new superintendent of police of Birbhum and appointed Srihari Pandey, DC KAP, 3rd Battalion as the superintendent of police of Diamond Harbour.

The direction of the commission was to be implemented with immediate effect and a compliance report in respect to the joining of the transferred officers was needed to be sent within the next 24 hours.

The EC, in its letter to the chief secretary, also directed that the present incumbent officers being shifted should not be involved by the state government in any election-related duty.