Malpractice, says poll officer; bid to taint image, says Army

NEW DELHI: In yet another controversy to hit the armed forces during the ongoing elections, the

Leh

deputy commissioner and district election officer Avny

Lavasa

has written to the 14 Corps chief, Lt-General Y K Joshi, to sensitise his officers on the need to maintain the sanctity of the postal ballots being cast by soldiers .


This came after two independent candidates for the

Ladakh

constituency, Sajjad Hussain and Asgar Ali Karbalai, complained about malpractices in the process to Avny Lavasa, a J&K cadre officer from the 2013 batch of the IAS, who is also the daughter of Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa .

The Army, however, said the complaints were

general

in nature, with no specific instances mentioned in them. "Preliminary investigations indicate the complaints are unfounded and appears to have made to tarnish the Army's image. An in-depth investigation by the Leh Sub-Area commander (a major general) is underway to ascertain the details. The Army remains totally apolitical," said a senior officer .

Avny Lavasa's letter to the 14 Corps GoC said the complaints had claimed that there were "malpractices on part of the various commanding officers" of the Army. "It is alleged the commanding officers are telephonically asking jawans for their voting preferences rather than supplying them the ballot papers for casting their votes," she said .

"This is a gross violation of the secrecy of voting and a malpractice that has the potential to invite strict legal action. In this context, it is requested that the officers concerned may be sensitised about the issue and the sanctity of the election process maintained," she added.