The district administration and police in Kapurthala remain under fire from Opposition parties over the safety of ballot boxes since polling for the Municipal Corporation concluded on May 26.
While four candidates of the Congress have written to the State Election Commission regarding an alleged unauthorised entry by AAP halqa in-charge Karambir Singh Chandi on the strong room premises containing sealed ballot boxes of the Kapurthala MC, a power outage and no back-up late last evening led to a huge protest in the city till 1 am.
Leaders and workers of all parties, including the Congress, BJP and Shiromani Akali Dal, came on the roads in front of the Virsa Vihar and expressed their ire against the local administration for not assuring a continued power back-up at the strong room centre.
SSP Gaurav Toora said, “Both incidents were handled carefully. Any possibility of sabotage is completely ruled out. Our SHO and DSP had reached the spot where the power failure took place and pacified the angry workers. Virsa Vihar is a gated campus. Our police personnel remained on guard all the time. There has been absolutely no chance of any security breach. We understand the anxiety in the minds of some people and we have attempted our best to satisfy all of them".
A massive fire broke out around 10 pm at the 138 KV power house in Kapurthala, forcing the authorities to shut down electricity supply as a precautionary measure. More than half of the city plunged into darkness amid scorching weather.
Fire brigade teams had rushed to the spot to control the blaze. Officials and employees of the electricity department also reached the site to assess the situation and supervise restoration work. The exact cause of the fire is under investigation. Although electricity was restored in some areas, the supply could not be normalised completely even till this evening. A senior engineer of the department has assured residents that the issue will be resolved soon.
Yesterday, candidates of the Congress — Deepak Salwan, Rajveer Singh Bawa, Vinod Kumar Sood and Manjinder Singh Sahi supported by MLA Rana Gurjeet Singh — had lodged a complaint with Raj Kamal Chaudhari, State Election Commissioner. They submitted, “Chandi entered the strong room premises located at Virsa Vihar on May 26 at 9:20 pm and remained there for 20-25 minutes. The area is a restricted zone where ballot boxes had been kept after polling. At that time, neither the Returning Officer, nor the SDM or election in-charge was present."
Expressing apprehensions, they have written, “There is a possibility that Chandi could have indulged in any corrupt practice. It is a matter of concern as to how he was allowed to enter the strong room premises. Either police officials deployed outside permitted his entry knowingly or he forcefully entered the restricted area on his own. The incident has created doubt in the minds of the candidates regarding fairness of the election process. An immediate strict inquiry should be conducted into the mater and strictest possible action should be taken against Chandi and all responsible for the serious lapse."
