The five-member committee headed by Additional Chief Electoral Officer
Narayan Navti appointed by the Chief Electoral Officer Kunal to probe the
recent Goa Assembly election expenses is a mere farce and eyewash. The
inquiry to be free and fair should instead be conducted by a retired High
Court Judge assisted by an Accountant of his choice.
The Chief Election Commissioner of India Dr Nasim Zaidi has already been
requested to order an independent probe into the acts of omission and
commission by Goa CEO Kunal. The probe into this mega crore fraud cannot be
a superficial in-house one conducted by officers who are working under
Kunal himself.
Goa’s Chief Electoral Officer needs to explain as to why he has not yet
displayed on the website the breakup of the total expenses incurred on the
recent Assembly elections. Public funds cannot be squandered and the Chief
Electoral Officer would have to justify every paisa spent.
As it is very surprising that such a whopping expenditure was incurred by
the Government on the elections, we need to have an in-depth meticulous
audit into all the expenses. The lack of transparency and the veil of
secrecy in the working of the Chief Electoral Officer’s office is a matter
of concern as it is a clear grim sign of bad governance. Any waste of
taxpayers’ money is not condonable. Only a detailed and fair investigation
will reveal to what extent the bills were inflated and wasteful expenditure
incurred.
Chief Electoral Officer Kunal has been very partisan by not acting against
the gross election malpractices indulged by the ruling BJP. Kunal and his
jumbo team were mere spectators while the BJP freely distributed abundant
cash in the two days prior to the Feb 4th elections.
Infact the office of Chief Electoral Officer has been reduced to a camp
site of the ruling BJP. Persons known to be having close ties with the BJP
should have not been assigned duties of conducting the elections.
All the so called arrangements made by Chief Electoral Officer were only
cosmetic and portrayed as glossy on paper, while the ground reality was
very different with even the staff deployed on election duty not provided
the very basic amenities. Every citizen is now entitled to know the
detailed expenditure of those mega crores spent on the elections. With
Kunal as CEO in Goa, the Election Commission of India has miserably failed
in conducting free and fair elections as mandated by law.
Did Kunal have to be reminded of those word of the Former Albanian Prime
Minister Fatos Nano “Organising free and fair elections is more important
than the result itself”.
Aires Rodrigues
Advocate High Court
C/G-2, Shopping Complex
Ribandar Retreat,
Ribandar – Goa – 403006
Mobile No: 9822684372
Office Tel No: (0832) 2444012
Email: airesrodrigu...@gmail.com
Or
airesrodrig...@yahoo.com
You can also reach me on
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www.airesrodrigues.com
