No Pongal gift in 27 dists, SEC tells court

The submission was made before a division bench comprising Justices M Sathyanarayanan and R Hemalatha who took up the plea hearing on an urgent basis after a mention was made by the petitioner’s counsel.

However, the bench on recording the submission, ordered notice to both the TNSEC and the State government and directed them to file their counter during the next hearing onJanuary 10.

The petitioner, R Alamelu, who had filed her nomination to a post in the Thandarampattu Panchayat Union in Tiruvannamalai district had submitted that the payment of Rs 1,000 along with Pongal hamper to the ration card holders is nothing but a bid to lure the public to vote in favour ofthe ruling party.

Such payment to the card holders along with Pongal hamper when elections are going to be held will certainly affect the poll prospects of the candidates in the fray and would not give a level-playing field to Independent candidates like her or other political parties, she contended.

Seeking to keeping the said scheme in abeyance until the rural local bodies’ elections which is scheduled on December 27 and 30, the petitioner said even after the completion of the election, there is sufficient time of about two weeks available to disburse the said Pongal gift hamper with cash support.

Based on this, the plea sought for a direction to the TNSEC and the State government to implement the Pongal scheme after the completion of the local body elections in the 27 districts.

It may be noted that the Madurai bench, on taking cognisance of the State government’s submission on Thursday that the TNSEC had permitted it to distribute the hampers in the nine rural districts where the elections would not be conducted for now, had closedthe petition.