Zila parishad, block samiti polls: Cong alleges denial of NOC to party leaders

The Congress on Monday sought an urgent intervention of the Punjab Chief Electoral Officer alleging that state government officials were refusing to issue “no-objection certificates” to their leaders wanting to contest the zila parishad and block samiti polls on December 14.

An NOC is issued by the Block Development aand Panchayats Officer, clearing that the leader wanting to contest the polls has not defaulted on panchayat taxes. It is a mandatory step before filing the nominations.

In a letter addressed to the officer, Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said the NOCs of Congress leaders were either being delayed or denied. “Since the process of filing of the nomination papers has already started and the last date is close by, the candidates are not getting the NOCs to be issued by the officials concerned,” he said, terming this an attempt to prevent them from contesting the polls. “I have been flooded with messages and phone calls about this problem that the officials authorised to issue the NOCs are not available,” he said. “There appears to be a deliberate design in this…,” he said, adding that this was gross violation of the fair electoral process.

According to the poll schedule, nominations can be filed between December 1 and 4 while the papers will be scrutinised on December 5. The last date for the withdrawal of nominations will be December 6.

5 nominations filed on Day 1

Chandigarh: Five nominations were filed for the December 14 zila parishad and panchayat samiti elections on the first day today. One nomination was filed for the Tarn Taran zila parishad, while four were filed for the Moga panchayat samiti, said an official in the State Election Commission. The nominations for the elections to 22 zila parishads and 153 panchayat samitis are to be filed between December 1 and 4. The election to the Mohali zila parishad and panchayat samiti have been postponed. Political parties will contest these elections on their party symbols. The gazette notification for the elections was also issued today.