By TC News Desk
Agartala, 28th April 2024: The Leader of Opposition, Jitendra Chaudhury today wrote a letter to the Returning Officer of East parliamentary constituency Saju Vaheed demanding him to take action against ARO (Additional SDM, Shantir Bazar) for his biasness in duty after Minister Shukla Charan Noatia reportedly un-authorized intervened into the conduct of polling on second phase of poll held on April 26.
In the letter, Chaudhury who is also CPIM MLA said that Sukla Charan Noatia, who happens to be a Cabinet
Minister in the and who is a resident and voter of 32-Matarbari Assembly Segment of 1-West Tripura PC, had physically visited several polling stations, for the day long, during the poll hours on 26-04-2024, and went inside the polling booths during the conduct of poll in connection with the LS Election-2024, threatened the polling personnel, including the Presiding and other Polling Officers within the polling booths, the Micro-Observers and also the security personnel who were on their election duty in polling stations and also campaigned for the BJP Candidate in the queue of voters within the polling booths of 38-Jolaibari(ST) Assembly Segment of 2-Tripura East(ST)
PC in South Tripura District.
“Now, this kind of serious and gross violation of all Election Rules and Regulations, beyond every defined limit, does not only amounts to serious criminal offence under the prevailing set of law of the land, which are in force, but also amounts to extreme and absolute disobedience to the very basic spirit of the MCC”, the letter reads.
He further pointed out that Noatia had dictated and directed the Presiding Officer, Micro Observer, Additional Polling Officer and other Polling Officers and even the Security Personnel, who were on duty in the Polling
Booth No.38/46- Surja Kumar Roaja Para SB School, of 38-Jolaibari (ST) Assembly Segment for identification of voters as per his dictated methodology and not as per whatever is written in various election laws, manuals and ECI instructions. It is a shocking state of affairs that from the booth itself . Noatia has instructed the ARO over phone to immediately withdraw the Presiding Officer from polling duty and the ARO instead of discharging his defined role
succumbed to the dictate of the minister.
“This is not only a serious electoral offence, but also directly amounting to criminal offence of ‘obstructing public servants in discharging their lawful duties’ under the Section 353 of the Indian Penal Code”, Jiten alleged.
In the letter, he said that this incident was brought to the notice of the ARO (Additonal SDM, Shantir Bazar) from several quarters right from the beginning of the Minister Suklacharan Noatia and his brigade’s early movement, to the DEO-South Tripura but unfortunately nothing helped to see any action from the end of the ARO, rather patronizing the erring minister by carrying out his illegal instructions and totally creating a chaos to the peaceful conduct of the polling.
“Hope, that considering the gravity of the matter, you will be kind enough to ensure that, proper and
appropriate action(s) is taken on all the above mentioned issues, very particularly against the erring
officer (ARO), who has displayed a sheer neglect and biasness in discharging a very important national
Duty” he demanded.
