Curious cases of ‘withdrawn’ nominations

Sample this: Naib Singh,Congress candidate for block samiti of Romana Ajit Singh,was told his nomination stands rejected for non-payment of tuti tax — a levy paid for getting water supply connection for installing a tap.

A visit to his village shows Naib Singh’s house has no water supply connection and no tap. It just has a handpump. Pointing to the water supply pipes in the lane near his house,Naib Singh says after his nomination was rejected,he submitted an affidavit to the returning officer for Kotkapura,tehsildar Darshan Singh,on May 8 that there is no tap in his house. “I never even applied for a water supply connection. All we have is a handpump. But still my nomination was rejected,” he says.

Returning officer Darshan Singh,who is being accused of engineering false withdrawal and rejection of nominations by opposition candidates to ensure block samiti seats go unopposed in favour of the ruling party,says the SDO,water supply,had verified that tuti tax dues were not paid by the candidate. “If I receive an objection,I have to get it verified from the concerned government department. The nominations were rejected after the government departments verified that dues are not paid,” he says.

Needless to say,the ruling party nominee was elected unopposed for the seat.

Beant Singh of Chand Bhan block samiti has a tap in his house,only it stopped running one-and-half years back. His nomination was rejected as the entire village has not paid waterworks dues. “I have a tap but its not working for the last one-and-half years as the water supply of the village has been disconnected for non-payment of dues. How can I pay my dues when I get no bills,” he says. For the same seat,the ruling party had a candidate from the neighbouring village,which had paid its dues. He was announced elected unopposed.

There is also the curious case of a Congress candidate Kultar Singh of Sandhwan,the village of former Indian President Giani Zail Singh. Kultar is grandson of Zail Singh but his nomination was rejected for writing the wrong vote number. Showing a copy of the voter list and his nomination papers,he says both the documents show his voter number as 164. “They are not telling me what voter number have I filled in the nomination papers. Perhaps,they have made 164 as 184,” he said. Here too,SAD candidate won unopposed.

Many rejections of opposition candidates came for not submitting documents from necessary government departments. This when by own admission of Faridkot Deputy Commissioner,Ravi Bhagat,no nominations can be rejected if the candidate submits self-declarations with self-attested affidavits. “I had directed ROs that no nominations should be rejected if there are self-declarations. It is our duty to verify the claims within 24 hours,” he said.

But Congress in-charge for Faridkot,Kushaldeep Dhillon says many candidates could not submit documents as officers were not coming to BDO offices during filing of nominations. “The candidates had to furnish bank slips for chulha tax and no due slips from BDO offices. Forget accepting self-declarations,some of the nominations were rejected despite submitting no due slips and bank slips. Of the 25 block samiti seats in Faridkot,nine nominations of Congress candidates stand rejected or falsely withdrawn. Many officers supervising the polls are officers hired on contract basis. They are pliable and are just doing the bidding of the government. Those who do not have to leave. The SDM of Kotkapura,also hired on contract basis,resigned few days back as he was not willing to play into their hands. It is all a farce in the name of panchayati elections and grass-root democracy,” he said.

A charge also levelled by the CPI,which contested 19 block samiti seats,of which it claims 11 nominations were falsely withdrawn. “The entire official machinery is working at the behest of Chief Parliamentary Secretary Mantar Singh Brar,whose younger brother is contesting zila parishad seat from here. They have elected nine Akali-BJP candidates unopposed to ensure his win. We are protesting outside DC office. We will take this fight to the courts,” CPI district secretary Pawanpreet Singh said.