Doubtful if Trinamool government can hold peaceful panchayat polls: Union Minister
Kolkata, April 15: Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal on Sunday decried the violence centred around submission of nominations for the upcoming West Bengal panchayat elections, saying it was doubtful if the Trinamool Congress government could hold peaceful polls.
"The developments with regard to the Panchayat polls in Bengal cannot be part of the democratic tradition. Violence should not take place in the run-up to the polls," he said on the sidelines of a programme here.
Iterating that in a democracy, every election down to the municipality of panchayat level should be held peacefully, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader expressed doubts over whether the state government had the capability to conduct a violence-free poll.
"How can we say the state government had the capability to tackle the situation and conduct peaceful polls, after seeing the images and getting to know whatever is happeing?" he said in reply to a question.
The Calcutta High Court has halted the panchayat poll procedure on a petition filed by the BJP. Other opposition parties - the Left and the Congress - have also approached the judiciary accusing the ruling Trinamool of unleashing massive pre-poll violence on their party workers over the filing of nominations for the rural polls since the process began on April 2.
They also accused the State Election Commission of acting like a puppet of the state ruling party after it withdraw its order of extending the nomination process by a day, within a few hours of issuing it.
The panchayat elections are scheduled for May 1, 3 and 5, while the counting of votes is due on May 8.
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Pakistan reports two more polio cases; Total tally now 52
ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.
The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.
Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.
