Congress moves EC, seeks FIR against Uttarakhand CM, chief secy over model code ‘violations’

The Congress urged the Election Commission (EC) on Thursday to provoke prison proceedings against Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, the chief secretary and different functionaries of the state authorities, alleging that they back-dated appointments, transfers and postings and tampered with official data, violating the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). In a memorandum submitted to the EC, the Congress alleged “gross violations” of the MCC and the Representation of the People Act, 1951 by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) authorities in Uttarakhand.

“As the BJP government of Uttarakhand is conscious of the fact that it is being routed in the upcoming elections by the people of Uttarakhand, the Dhami government has indulged in desperate tampering of government records by back-dated appointments, transfers and postings and tampering with official records,” the opposition get together alleged.

It demanded that motion and prison proceedings, together with registration of FIRs, be initiated against Dhami, Chief Secretary S S Sandhu and different functionaries of the Uttarakhand authorities for “back-dating and tampering” with authorities data, and flagrantly violating the MCC as additionally the Representation of the People Act, 1951.

The EC ought to put aside or declare unlawful the back-dated appointments of BJP leaders to the Badrinath Kedarnath Temple Committee (BKTC) as the identical are in violation of the MCC and different authorized provisions, the Congress memorandum signed by get together leaders Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Harish Rawat, Randeep Surjewala, Ganesh Godiyal, Pritam Singh, Devendra Yadav, Pranav Jha and Aman Panwar mentioned.

It additionally urged the EC to put aside or declare unlawful the back-dated appointments made qua the Veer Madho Singh Bhandari Uttarakhand Technical University for being violative of the MCC and different authorized provisions.

“Set aside/declare illegal the back-dated transfer/postings of teachers in various parts of Uttarakhand for the same to be violative of the MCC and other legal provisions,” the memorandum learn.

It additionally referred to as for setting apart or declaring unlawful the back-dated appointments made qua the mandi samitis of Uttarakhand or another state entity for a similar to be violative of the MCC and different authorized provisions.

The Congress additionally urged the ballot panel to instantly keep all “back-dated” appointments illegally dated as January 7 and disallow the mentioned appointees from assuming cost.

It additionally referred to as for appointing a particular EC observer to look at all the federal government orders handed 72 hours previous to and after the declaration of election by the ballot panel to re-examine which of them are back-dated by the Dhami authorities so as to achieve “undue political advantage”.

Polling for the Uttarakhand Assembly election shall be held in a single section on February 14 and the counting of votes shall be taken up on March 10.