Kerala   

Ensuring free and fair elections in Kannur

Director General of Police Raman Srivastav's statement that the police will take tough measures to ensure free and fair local body polls in the State would have been taken with a pinch of salt by many people in Kannur, which still boasts of having highest number of sensitive polling booths in the State. Despite all the efforts taken by the police to ensure free and fair polling for the Azhikode and Koothuparamba byelections, the polling was not totally complaints-free.

Even when one expects the local body election here on September 26 to pass off peacefully, one is reminded of the tension and violence during the last local bodies election. A little girl called Asna symbolised the gravity of the volatile situation that existed in 2000. Asna was playing in front of her house at Cheruvancheri when she fell victim to a bomb attack on the polling day. She lost her leg, but triggered public outrage against the mindless violence that political rivalry here instigates.

One can only hope that the DGP's security measures will yield the desired results.

Mohamed Nazeer

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Jail term for former Minister in sexual harassment case
Ensuring free and fair elections in Kannur
Husband's manifesto for better half ?
Election coinages
`High-spirited' Onam
Development is the buzzword
New modes of campaigning enliven the poll scene
Heavenly company
Till the next elections
Thirty-five organisations support strike
Briefly

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu