Wont tolerate intimidation of staff by political workers, says EC

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission Wednesday issued a strict warning that intimidation of electoral staff by political workers will not be tolerated and that stringent action will be taken against miscreants who attempt to take the law into their own hands.

After a meeting with a TMC delegation, officials said the poll panel urged party netas to ensure their ground-level representatives do not threaten staff on election duty. Intimidation of any electoral staff, including booth-level officers (BLOs), electoral roll officers, assistant EROs, and observers, by political representatives will not be tolerated, an official said.

EC also urged the West Bengal govt to immediately release the enhanced honorarium for BLOs, as approved by the commission. In response, AITC sources said CEC Gyanesh Kumar should write to Union finance minister seeking release of Rs 2 lakh crore of Bengals allegedly blocked funds. They added that even if the funds are not released, the AITC-led govt would pay a Rs 50,000 honorarium to BLOs if such a letter is written.

In a separate development, the CEO of West Bengal informed Wednesday that it had received only eight claims and objections from over two lakh booth-level agents of national- and state-level political parties for inclusion of names in the electoral roll between Dec 17 and 31 after the publication of the draft electoral roll on Dec 16.

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