CEC Kumar directed the the chief secretary and DGP to ensure that such violence is not repeated.
Chief election, Commissioner Rajeev Kumar (photo:ANI)
Taking note of the post-poll violence in Andhra Pradesh, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday directed the state chief secretary and DGP to take action against the culprits.
The direction of the poll panel came during a meeting chaired by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar along with Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, with the chief secretary and DGP of Andhra Pradesh.
Expressing its displeasure over the violence, Kumar directed the the chief secretary and DGP to ensure that such violence is not repeated and all SPs to be tasked to take pre-emptive measures to avoid such a situation in future.
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The meeting reviewed the cases at their level and directed CS and DGP for strict supervision, to ensure appropriate decision on timely filing of chargesheet against the culprits, as per law, preferably within the model code of conduct period.
During the briefing, the CS and the DGP shared their assessment of negligence and lack of supervision on the part of officials in violence hit districts.
The meeting decided to direct the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to retain the 25 CAPF companies in Andhra Pradesh for 15 days after counting, to control any violence after declaration of results.
It may be recalled that ECI had summoned the chief secretary and DGP of Andhra Pradesh to New Delhi to personally explain reasons for failure of administration to contain post poll violence. Several incidents of violence were reported in Ananthapuramu, Palnadu and Tirupati districts on the poll-day and post poll day.
Incidents were also reported before the poll involving assault, setting the property/office of the opposite party on fire, threatening, damaging of the campaign vehicles, stone pelting etc. Most of these incidents happened in the districts of Annamaya, Chittoor and Palnadu and few incidents in Guntur,Anantapur and Nandyal, etc.
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