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EC gives Farooq a bloody nose

Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar

A bloody nose already. And the election still weeks away!

The sufferer is the National Conference government of Jammu and Kashmir. Dr Farooq Abdullah's administration was, as it is, bruised by the refusal of its stalwarts to accept the delay in nominating candidates. Now it has been pulled up by the Election Commission, which, in no uncertain terms, told it to change all the three returning officers it had decided on.

Two of the officers had been posted as deputy commissioners only a week ago -- and that too, out of turn and in violation of the EC's Code of Conduct.

The EC had only on Tuesday directed the state to transfer three district magistrates and two senior police officers, including a deputy inspector general and a district police chief. The grounds were that the officers were "inadequate" for poll duties.

Incidentally, Chief Election Commissioner Manohar Singh Gill is in the valley for a four-day visit. The troubled state goes to a three-phased poll next month.

Political leaders who met Gill in Srinagar complained about the recent transfer of the civil and police officers.

The state government had shifted the deputy commissioners of Baramulla, Anantnag and Srinagar. Mohammad Hussain Shiekh, the director of food and supplies, has been appointed the new district magistrate of Baramulla. Mohammad Aslam, the director of estates, has been appointed as DC to Anantnag. The Srinagar deputy commissioner Tanveer Jehan has been attached with the general administration department. She has been replaced by Kachoo Isfandyar Khan, the additional deputy commissioner, Srinagar.

The state has also decided to transfer the DIG of Baramulla, Dilbagh Singh, and the district police chief Kupwara Ashkoor Wani. Sources said that DIG CID Javed Mukhdoomi may replace Singh as deputy inspector general, Baramulla.

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