THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Daltonganj, May 14: The Lok Sabha poll in the Palamu constituency, which concluded on May 13 has come as a shot in the arm of the civil and police administrations after it passed off peacefully.
Nevertheless, the Palamu Lok Sabha polling has left behind a few caustic lessons which if this district learns or acts upon, it may save itself from many embarrassing situations during the Vidhan Sabha election which is due by the year end.
There were areas where the visibility of both the wings of the administration was either dim or blurred.
Burqa-wearing voters
There were votes, true, but in many places, it was outright reactive or ambush voting spurred by the burqa-wearing voters!
Messages were passed on phones with inflated numbers of burqa-wearing voters just to inflame the other side’s female voters to outnumber the burqa-wearing voters.
7 FIRs lodged in Palamu
Legal sections were used to tame and contain like the 7 FIRs that were lodged in the Palamu Lok Sabha limits on the day of polling.
Three of these seven FIRs were lodged in the Daltonganj assembly constituency while two FIRs were lodged in the Bishrampur assembly constituency.
There was one each FIR in the Chhaterpur and Hussainabad assembly constituencies.
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5 of 7 FIRs related to model code violation
SP Reeshma Ramesan told the Jharkhand Story correspondent today, “Let it be clear that none of these 7 FIRs were any related to poll violence of magnitude. Barring two, one in Chhaterpur and the other in Untari Road under the Bishrampur assembly constituency, the remaining 5 FIRs had the content and text of the violation of the model code of conduct.”
Reminded that the number of as many as 7 FIRs on the day of polling sends out a reflection that all was not well and things could be managed with excessive penetration of law.
Everything fine: SP
SP Reeshma Ramesan replying to this said, “Everything was fine. We didn’t show any excessive coercion nor did we show any excessive leniency. It was a balancing act. We were tough within the ambit of law where we found it. We did nothing for exhibitionism.”
As now the polling for the Palamu Lok Sabha seat is over, is there for the police to learn a lesson or two as to where it went overdrive and also where it faltered?
Debriefing session
Reeshma Ramesan was at her best when she told this correspondent most candidly that she would have a debriefing session beginning with her lower rung officials just to know where we needed to act fast or if we had jerks to start. It will be a free-wheeling debriefing. It will help us to know our strength and frailty both.”
She agreed it never harms if one takes a leaf or two of the things that passed off incident-free.
Huge replacement for EVMs and VVPATs
As for the civil side, there is a galore of lessons. First is the huge replacement for EVMs and VVPATs etc.
According to the returning officer Shashi Ranjan, 35 sets of the VVPATs were replaced under the standard operational procedures as laid by the ECI. Similarly, 9 sets of EVMs were replaced.
These figures are too high and portent evil for the conduct of the election. These 35 and 9 which got off midway were not for the only reason of heat and light etc, there was the miscarriage of handling of them.
The lesson is more deep and penetrative training based on maximum on the principle of doing it yourself and not just seeing and hearing what the master trainer is saying.
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Menace of deletions
The second big lesson is the menace of deletions. 41,000 plus deletions! Now, it appears deletions were done unmindfully as otherwise, the priest Maurice Kujur of Station Road church would not have undergone the trauma of returning to church without casting his vote at booth number 210. His name was deleted.
Kanchan Devi was the next to go home without casting her vote as her name too was deleted from the electoral roll.
It is still time for the Palamu administration to wake up to find out as to how 10,000 plus deletions of voters have been done in the Panki assembly constituency which is to vote on May 20 along with the Chatra Lok Sabha constituency.
