VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, in a letter to the Election Commission on Friday, took exception to Chief Electoral Officer Gopala Krishna Dwivedi’s reported remarks that he (Naidu) “does not have the power to review the functioning of departments” while the model code of conduct is in force.
In his nine-page letter, Naidu stated that the purpose of writing the letter was to bring out many instances of unilateral actions taken by the Election Commission of India (ECI) after the poll schedule was announced. He asked the poll panel to direct the CEO to work in such a way that the normal functioning of the administration goes on unobstructed.
“Since there is an unusually large gap of around 42 days before the counting takes place and results are announced, normal administration shall not be allowed to come to a standstill and crippled,” Naidu wrote to the ECI.
People of the State reserve the right to recover the cost overrun of projects from all those who come in the way of their timely completion by initiating legal proceedings, he said.In his 40 years of public life, he said, he had never seen an election that was so “badly conducted, logistically mismanaged and poorly organised.”
“As part of my constitutional responsibilities, I decided to review works of public importance such as drinking water, Polavaram project, construction of the new capital city, disaster management, etc. But it came as surprise to me when the CEO commented that the Chief Minister does not have the power to review the departments.”
According to him, the remark not only affected the public perception of democratic governance, but also the established conventions of democratic polity. “The CEO’s reported comments are without any jurisdiction as there is no such provision in the model code of conduct that the Chief Minister cannot hold review meetings. Though I am duty-bound and empowered to conduct review meetings, I am constrained by embarrassing apprehensions faced by the participating officials concerned due to the reported misinformation spread by the CEO in the media,” he observed.
Naidu stated that the CEO was “exceeding his jurisdiction” and has even instructed the Additional DG (Intelligence) not to report to the CM. “I would like to know from the ECI, whether the reporting authority of Addl’ DG (Intelligence) is also changed by the ECI... Who will assess his performance and write his ACR (annual confidential report)?”
“Do you want to say that the Director (IB) and the National Security Advisor are also prohibited from functioning under the PM...” he questioned. He further said the ECI could not stop him from reviewing any project. “Since the electorate have already exercised their franchise, the ECI has no jurisdiction to stop any review meeting as these works are seasonal...”