Clearing police records a must for contesting polls

Statesman News Service

MALDA. March .10. — Persons who are interested to contest the Assembly election will have to clear their police records related to any non-bailable arrest warrant against them by surrendering before court, the Malda SP said today. Talking about the non-bailable arrest warrant against the Malda Trinamul president, Mr KN Chowdhury, the Malda S P, Mr DK Mondal said that he would have to surrender before the court if he wanted to contest the Assembly election. “If he gets an anticipatory bail it is good and after arrest he will be released soon,” Mr Mondal said.It may be recalled that following the instruction of the election observer for Malda, the district magistrate directed the Malda SP to write a letter to his Katihar counterpart in Bihar to execute the non-bailable arrest warrant against him in connection with a twin-murder case. Another rebel Trinamul leader, Mr Dulal Sarkar and the councillor of English Bazaar Municipality was also involved in this case, suggest police records. The Malda SP had sent a letter to the SP Katihar to execute the pending warrant against them but he denied to comment on whether the Katihar SP has requisitioned the Malda police.“We do not have any requisition from Katihar police. On the other hand, we cannot disclose it. After we arrest them, the police stand about the case would be clear,” Mr Mondal said.

EC directive

The election officials said today that the Election Commission has sent a new guideline based on the Defacement Act 1976 and restricted construction of any gate bearing slogans and party flags on the road. According to officials, party flags can be hoisted in the party offices only and not in the public places under Section 2-A of the Act. No poster, banner, party flag, symbol and message or slogan will be allowed to put up in public places under Section 2-B of the Defacement Act 1976. The additional district magistrate, Mr BP Barat said that the district administration has started to clean up walls. It may be recalled that only the CPI-M started wall writing here and stopped following the guidelines of the EC and finding out other strategies for election campaigning. Recently, at an all-political party meeting this subject was discussed and there was a “fun debate” among the party leaders mainly between the CPI-M and the Congress. When asked about the lack of election tempo in the area, a CPI-M leader said: “We have declared our candidates’ names and completed wall writing. Now the administration is erasing our graffiti. As a result you can not observe election tempo here.” The district election officials are keeping in touch with the police for the security of the workers who are engaged in the work of erasing graffiti.