VIJAYAWADA: In yet another confrontation with the Election Commission of India, the TDP on Saturday asked the ECI to allow its technical advisor Hari Prasad Vemuru to hold discussions with the ECI on the issue of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and not to look into the criminal case against him (Hari Prasad).
The TDP’s response came after the ECI asked it to send another expert other than Hari Prasad as he was having a criminal case against him and it contended that no chargesheet was filed against the latter even after nine years.
Earlier in the day, a delegation led by TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu met Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and complained about the malfunctioning of EVMs in AP polls and other related issues. Hari Prasad, who was among the delegation, raised several technical issues regarding functioning of EVMs. The ECI too called its technical expert Sudeep Jain, Deputy Election Commissioner, Incharge of EVMs, and decided that apart from Jain, Prof DT Shahani, Chairman, Technical Expert Committee (TEC), will join the discussion in the evening. However, it declined to have a discussion with Hari Prasad.
“When the technical person came, he turned out to be Hari Prasad, who was involved in a criminal case regarding alleged theft of EVM in 2010 in which FIR was filed at MRA Marg Police Station in Mumbai,’’ ECI Principal Secretary Stanhope Yuhlung said, in his letter addressed to TDP legal cell president and Rajya Sabha member Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar.
YSRC moves Governor against Naidu
He also took up the issue of Naidu’s comments against the ECI to the notice of Governor ESL Narasimhan. “Naidu went to the extent of belittling the ECI appointed Chief Secretary by calling him a ‘co-accused’ and someone who worked as ‘covert agent’.
There is every possibility that Naidu may even victimise the civil servants who obey the directives of the Election Commission ignoring the ‘interim’ CM’s orders,” Vijayasai Reddy apprehended. Raising the issue of State finances, the MP said that nearly Rs 32,000 crore bills are pending related to last financial year for clearance. “The interim government may resort to clearance of many unbudgeted and unimportant bills favouring their own party leaders,” Vijayasai Reddy said and added that the ‘First Come First Served’ principle should be followed in clearance of bills.
Naidu’s remarks on CS decried
A group of 13 retired IAS officers shot off a letter to Chief Minister Naidu on Saturday demanding that he withdraw his remarks against Chief Secretary Subramanyam and apologise for the same. The retired IAS officers also found fault with Naidu for his ‘intimidating behaviour’ with CEO Gopal Krishna Dwivedi.
Taking serious note of Naidu’s comments, the retired IAS officers rallied behind LV Subramanyam and described him as an “outstanding officer.” “It is unfortunate that the CM is referring to Subrahmanyam as an accused even after the cases against him have been quashed by the High Court,’’ they said.