Lucknow: Those attending weddings in this season will not have much to “cheer” about because the State Election Commission is cancelling all temporary licenses given for weddings and parties. This is being done in view of the ongoing municipal elections in the state.
Though the State Election Commission spokesperson said that temporary bar licenses were being cancelled for December 1 when counting will take place, a senior excise official said that majority of the licenses for the rest of November were also being cancelled.
“There is a possibility of candidates using parties and weddings as an excuse to distribute liquor. Prohibition will be in force on November 22, 26 and 29 in districts where voting is scheduled to take place and all liquor shops will be closed. But we are also keeping an eye on parties for which temporary licenses have been taken,” the excise official said.
A temporary license had been issued for a high profile party being hosted by a top businessman for bureaucrats and other businessman on December 1. Since this amounted to violation of the code of conduct for the civic polls, the SEC has passed strictures against the officer and cancelled the temporary license issued by him to the bar.
The SEC has also asked the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) to postpone the function for inauguration of its road projects in Ghazipur till after the elections.
Meanwhile, after reviewing the election preparedness with his officers, the SEC has issued a instruction to officers deployed in poll duty and poll observers not to leave their cities without any prior permission.
Meanwhile, on the basis of intelligence inputs and police, the commission has already marked 3,700 polling booths as hypersensitive and asked the officers for extra preparedness.
“We have received nearly 40 companies of Central paramilitary forces and these would be deployed as the situation arises” said Mr S.K. Agarwal, the state election commissioner.
He said that the decision of staging a flag march in the sensitive and hypersensitive areas would be taken by the district administration.
