Election scene hots up for Punjab NRI Sabha poll

JALANDHAR: With the announcement of the Punjab NRI Sabha elections to be held in the state on November 6, the poll scene amongst the NRI diaspora has begun hotting up, with speculation rife on the probable candidates who will contest the most coveted post of the president of the Central NRI Sabha established here in the city.

Rachna Khaira

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, July 31

With the announcement of the Punjab NRI Sabha elections to be held in the state on November 6, the poll scene amongst the NRI diaspora has begun hotting up, with speculation rife on the probable candidates who will contest the most coveted post of the president of the Central NRI Sabha established here in the city.

After keeping the most crucial post of the president in the Punjab NRI Sabha vacated for over a year, the state government has announced its elections to be held just ahead of the Assembly elections in the state.

Even though the elections were much anticipated this year, a huge uproar has been reported amongst the NRIs when the announcement was made on Friday.

Former presidents, while challenging the election announcement, questioned the process. According to them, the Sabha constitution has a provision of giving a stipulated time to the NRIs to elect their president unanimously.

“However, this time, no such option was given to the NRIs, which is against the Constitution of the Sabha,” said one of the former presidents of the Central NRI Sabha. The presidents also accused the state government of hijacking the Sabha by constituting bylaws without holding elections of the president and also without constituting the executive council of the Sabha. Also, they slammed the bureaucracy for not holding the General House meeting to discuss the elections!

“The executive council is yet to be constituted and the annual general body meeting was not held in the last many years. How can the bureaucracy with just a handful of NRIs draft the bylaws and even get it approved from the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal?” said another former president of the Sabha.

Recently, a controversy erupted when Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, also the chief patron of the Sabha, approved the bylaws drafted after 19 years of the Sabha’s inception, but the state NRI Affairs Department denied it.

While the approved copy of the bylaws duly signed by the Punjab CM, was received at the Central NRI Sabha a few months ago, Sanjay Kumar, Principal Secretary of the department, had said that the prepared draft of the bylaws would be first placed before the Sabha’s central executive, to be constituted soon and only later will be sent to the Chief Minister for final approval.

When contacted on Friday, Kumar refused to comment on the issue and asked this correspondent to speak to the Jalandhar Divisional Commissioner Harbhupinder Singh Nanda for any queries, Nanda, when contacted, said he was only following the directions given by the principal secretary, NRI.

The NRIs are now contemplating to challenge the election announcement in the court of law.

Schedule of elections

Date of filing of nominations: October 22 to 24

Scrutiny of nomination papers: October 26

Last date of withdrawal of nominations: October 29

Date of polling: November 6

Counting of votes and declaration of results: November 6

Conditions

1. Members enrolled after August 31 will not be allowed to participate in the elections

2. The final electoral roll will be published on October 6 at Sabha’s website www.nrisabhapunjab.in

Only NRI members will be allowed to vote. Nominees cannot vote on behalf of NRI members.