EC transfers two top police officials

chandigarh: having witnessed more than 150 officials getting transferred so far, the ruling sad-bjp got another shock on tuesday when the election commission ordered the transfer of batala ssp sukhdev singh brar and ludhiana dsp (cid) sukhdev singh kahlon for allegedly helping the alliance candidates. the action of the election commission against the state government officials has left the ruling sad-bjp alliance sulking.brar has been punished for his ''proximity to chief minister parkash singh badal, whereas kahlon has earned the commission's wrath for ''helping sad nominee jagdish garcha in quila raipur constituency. though additional chief electoral officer usha sharma, while talking to mediapersons, here, on tuesday, gave no definite instances of the reported acts of indiscretion of the two officers, she said action against them had been taken after ''adequate verifications. the ruling alliance leaders have, however, not taken kindly to it. while the batala dsp has been charged with having proximity to the chief minister, the bjp candidate from batala, jagdish sahni, told the times of india that at no stage had brar came to his political assistance. he, however, declined to comment on the merit of the commission's action. commenting on the transfer of dsp kahlon, sharma said he had been charged with ''patronising sad candidate jagdish garcha. she, however, declined to elaborate on it. the action against him had been taken on the complaint of congress candidate gurdial kaur. incidentally, a few days ago garcha had complained to the commission that his congress rival was being ''actively helped by additional director general of police g s aujla to whom she was related. the commission had also earlier overlooked the sad complaint against another adgp, g s bhullar, for allegedly covertly helping his son, kuldeep singh, who is a congress candidate for the seat. in all, the commission has so far transferred 46 police officers, including an ig, and a dig, besides more than 80 officials of the departments of local bodies, excise and taxation, and education. the cm had earlier expressed reservations at the manner the commission had transferred three deputy commissioners earlier this month. he had said that indiscriminate action against officers could demoralise the state bureaucracy.