Notices sent to 5 Himachal Pradesh poll officials for shirking duty

Five Himachal Pradesh government officials have been sent notices for not following the Election Commission's (EC) polling norms. The officials have been asked to explain why they did not help the polling officers carry out election duties.

A notice was also sent to Chief Election Officer (CEO) Pushpendra Rajput, and it was learnt that a warning in this regard was issued earlier as well. The CEO remained unavailable for comments.

If proven guilty, all officials will face disciplinary action. As of now, they have been taken off election duties. The officials have been accused of not disseminating proper information from the election department and the EC to the candidates while they were filing nominations. Also, on the last date of filing nominations, they did not complete their duties in time and were not cooperative with their counterparts from the Centre. The election officials have also been blamed for not giving out appropriate information to the media.

The move comes a few days after the nomination of Irrigation and Public Health Minister Vidya Stokes, an eight-time legislator, was rejected due to discrepancies in her form. Congress had fielded two candidates on the Theog seat — Stokes and Deepak Rathore; Stokes had filed her nomination on the last day. She had said she would move High Court regarding the matter, but later decided not to.