The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today appealed to the State Election Commission to ensure no nomination paper was rejected on the basis of non-procurement of No Objection Certificate (NOC) or Chulha Tax in the panchayat election. In a letter to State Election Commission, senior SAD leader and former minister Dr. Daljit Singh Cheema said even though Commissioner Raj Kamal Chaudhary had issued directions in this regard they were not being followed.
He requested the Commission to direct all Returning Officers that in case they intended to reject any nomination on the basis of non-procurement of NOC or non-payment of Chulha tax the same should be forwarded to the Commission for scrutiny. “Right now Panchayati Development department officers were deliberately delaying taking a decision on nominations with the aim of rejecting them at the last minute so that applicants do not have any other recourse except approaching the high court after completion of the poll process”.
Asserting that it was the responsibility of the Commission to uphold democracy which had been murdered by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the ongoing panchayat elections, Dr Cheema said a token payment of Rs 7 per year as Chulha tax was being used to reject the nomination papers of candidates as well as the democratic rights of the opposition.
He said earlier also in 2018 out of 49,000 nominations for posts of Sarpanch as many as 21,000 nominations were rejected at the time of scrutiny of papers. “In the case of nomination papers for Panches, out of 1.6 lakh persons who filled the papers, only one lakh remained in the fray post scrutiny”.
Dr Cheema said as a routine, no Chulha tax registers were being maintained in any panchayat throughout the State and no efforts had been ever made by any government to recover the tax. He said AAP ministers and legislators had negated the efforts of the Commission which had directed candidates to file affidavits in case they did not get NOC of Chulha Tax.
Demanding action against errant officials, Dr Cheema said there were widespread complaints that Returning Officers were sitting in offices or residences of AAP functionaries instead of attending people in their offices. The SAD Spokesman also demanded that the entire process of scrutiny of nomination papers should be videographed by the Commission and senior officers should be appointed as Observers to monitor the process. He also forwarded complaints received from various parts of the State including from SAD leader from Dharamkot – Barjinder Singh Brar who cited how all opposition leaders were shunted out of the BDPO office in Kot Ise Khan and demanded SHO Arshpreet Kaur Grewal be transferred.
He said Guruharsahai leader Vardev Singh Mann had forwarded a complaint about delimitation of wards being done in the back date, Mantar Singh Brar had complained about Kotkapura Sadar SHO Chamkaur Singh and Kanwarjit Barkandi had complained about a DSP who was near retirement but had been posted to influence the panchayat polls in favour of the ruling party.