Panaji, Feb 1 (IANS) In a stern warning to the Goa administration, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) S.Y. Quraishi Wednesday said that state government officials “dare not defy directives” on poll-related issues.
Quraishi was replying to queries from reporters on state Chief Secretary Sanjiv Srivastava’s open defiance of an Election Commission of India (ECI) directive to suspend a senior Goa government official for issuing appointment letters, when the code of conduct was in force.
“They have suspended him now… No one dare defy and Election Commission of India (ECI) orders,” Quraishi said, even as the chief secretary in a written communication to the chief electoral officer Monday, had appealed the latter to “reconsider” the suspension of animal husbandry department director Sidhivinayak Naik.
Naik had been accused of filling up several dozen government posts in his department in violation of the code of conduct, after it was enforced on Dec 24.
“We are monitoring the compliance of order. We expect that the officers should not be partisan. Any official behaving in a biased and partisan manner will be punished,” said Quraishi, even as the opposition has accused the administration in Goa of succumbing to political pressure, even after the code of conduct came into force.
