The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today complained to the state Election Commission that the state bureaucracy was deliberately creating hurdles for the rival candidates to stop them from filing nominations for the Municipal Corporation, Committees and Town Panchayat elections in the state. It demanded strict action against the erring officials besides asking the commission to ensure a hassle-free election process to keep our democratic set up intact.In this regard, writing a letter to the Election Commission former minister and the SAD spokesperson, Dr. Daljit Singh Cheema said that it was surprising that the filing of nominations for the MC elections has already started, but many municipal committees as Dharamkot, Panjtoor of district Moga and Town Panchayats like Dhilwan, begowal and Bholath of district Kapoorthala are still awaiting for the voter lists. He said that this is a deep rooted conspiracy weaved by the state bureaucracy which desperately wanted to keep the rival candidates out of this contest.
Speaking about harassment being faced by the candidates at the hand of local administration which was refusing to provide them the Non-Objection Certificates (NOCs), the SAD leader said that the candidates of Municipal committees of Dharamkot and Panjtoor (of district Moga) and Town Panchayats of Mallanwala and Makhu (of district Firozpur) were not being issued the NOCs by their local administration. He said that there was a lot of resentment and anger among the candidates against this discriminatory approach of administration for robbing them of their right to contest. They had also held protests at some places against this discrimination but local administration pay no heed to them.Demanding strict action against the erring officials, the SAD leader asked the commission to order a probe into this matter and should also issue directions to the concerned authorities to take necessary steps needed to ensure fair and transparent elections in the state.