POs to lose their voting rights

PK Jaiswar

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 11

Tightening the noose around the proclaimed offenders (POs), the Special Task Force (STF) has asked all the city police commissioners and SSPs of various districts to provide details of the POs in their areas to the Deputy Commissioners-cum-District Election Officers of their respective areas.

The decision was taken to delete their names from the voting lists. The STF headed by IG Kunwar Vijay Partap Singh has been holding meetings with district heads in this connection. The STF has been made the nodal agency to ensure the arrest of all proclaimed offenders before the Assembly poll slated for February 4. There are around 20,000 POs in Punjab.

Confirming the development, the IG while talking to this correspondent said that he was holding areawise meetings with district police chiefs and their nodal officers. Meetings were already held in the Ropar Range and the Border Range of the police, he added. He said he had also written to all SSPs in this connection.

The Chief Election Commission (CEC) has also expressed a serious concern over the huge number of proclaimed offenders and directed the Punjab Police to ensure their arrest. The recent daredevil escape of around six gangsters from the Nabha jail has put the intelligence agencies on alert. These agencies had expressed the suspicion that they might create some trouble during the upcoming elections.

Besides POs, the STF has also launched a concerted drive against gangsters and their aides.