Bengal panchayat polls: Plea in Calcutta HC over violence during nomination

Kolkata, June 14 The CPI(M) and All India Secular Front (AISF) on Wednesday filed two separate petitions in the Calcutta High Court against the ongoing violence in the nomination phase for the forthcoming panchayat elections in West Bengal.

After the petitions were filed at the single-judge bench of Justice Rajasekhar Manth, the bench admitted the pleas. The matters will come up for hearing in the second half of the day.

Meanwhile, this morning, the state Election Commission too filed a petition at the High Court challenging the decision of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to appoint its own observer for the forthcoming rural civic body polls in the state.

In its petition, the commission has challenged the authority of NHRC in appointing observers for the panchayat polls besides accusing the national human right's body of being over-active in the matter.

On June 11, the NHRC announced the appointment of director general (investigation) Damodar Sarangi as the independent observer for the panchayat polls in the state. A communication was forwarded to the state election commission and the state secretariat on this count by the NHRC.

NHRC had taken suo motu cognisance of the reports of violence during the nomination phase with a Congress worker being shot dead at Khargram in Murshidabad district on Friday and a state government employee assaulted allegedly by ruling party activists at Bhangar in South 23 Parganas district for allowing AISF candidates to collect nomination papers.

Apart from that, several incidents of massive violence had been reported from various pockets in the state during the first four days of nomination since last Friday.

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