Chandy slams chief electoral officer over welfare measures

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government has come out against chief electoral officer E K Majhi for denying permission for several of the welfare schemes initiated by the government years back and also for blocking the drinking water supply in the drought hit areas.
Chief minister Oommen Chandy has said that if the chief electoral officer doesn't give permission to the requests, the government would be forced to take legal course of action and will also approach the Central Election Commission.
The drinking water supply in Kollam has been suspended following the direction from the chief electoral officer. The government had ordered the supply of drinking water in Kollam due to the severe drought situation prevailing here. But this has been stopped by the election commission.
The government had sanctioned Rs 30 crore for reopening the crisis-ridden cashew factories since the workers are facing crisis due to lack of job. But the election commission has stopped the reopening of these factories now, said the chief minister.
Similarly, under the comprehensive health care policy, the beneficiaries have to re-register to get the benefit of free treatment on every April. Since the election commission has ordered not to go ahead with this, the people will not be getting the benefit of free treatment from April. The same is the situation under the Karunya fund disbursement for various treatments as the commission has asked to stop this also, he added.
The chief minister alleged that the chief electoral officer is showing partiality despite the chief secretary of the government requesting him several times for sanctioning these essential services. ``The government has decided to wait till Tuesday noon and if the commission is not ready to give sanction, the government would be forced to move court,’’ said the chief minister.
He said that the distribution of free rice has also been hit since the election commission denied sanction. Even though the government had declared this scheme in the budget and the allocation was also provided, the election commission has shown a red flag to it.