Early Times Report
Jammu, May 10: The Deputy Commissioner and the District Election Officer for Leh, Avny Lavasa, has written to the General Officer Commanding of the HQ-14 Corps alleging a 'massive violation of election practice' on 10 May. However, Army has turned the allegations as baseless and unfounded. Army's Srinagar based spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said, "Preliminary investigations indicate that the complaints are unfounded and appear to have been made to tarnish the image of the Army. An in-depth investigation is on to ascertain the details in the most impartial manner."
"The Army remains apolitical and we hold this core value in letter and spirit," he added.
Another Army statement said that some political candidates appear to have complained regarding postal ballot process to be cast by service personnel. "The DEO complaint letter did not mention any specific instances," the statement added. In the letter addressed to the Indian Army, Lavasa wrote, "A complaint has been received from the contesting candidate for the 4-Ladakh Parliamentary constituency for the Lok Sabha elections, 2019, wherein it is alleged that there are malpractices on the part of various Commanding Officers of the Indian Army in the electronic postal ballot system. It is alleged that the Commanding Officers are telephonically asking jawans for their voting preference rather than supplying them the ballot paper for casting his vote."
In this context, Lavasa requested, that all the concerned officers should be sensitized about the issue so that "the sanctity of the election process maintained". |
