AP CS Nilam Sawhney writes to SEC over Local Body Elections, Nimmagadda Ramesh counters

In the wake of Andhra Pradesh state election commission has announced that the local body election be held in February, the chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney has clarified that it is not possible to conduct local body elections in the state of Andhra Pradesh as the coronavirus cases have not been completely reduced and wrote a letter to the state election commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar to this extent. She said it is not fair to compare AP with other states and recalled that the centre's warning that more vigilance was needed during the winter.

She said that under the current circumstances, there is a risk that the corona will spread to rural areas if elections are held and informed about the administrative staff, police personnel and employees of various departments are working to contain coronavirus. "The Government will inform the State Electoral Commission on the conduct of elections as soon as the situation becomes favourable for the management of local bodies, it is not right to hold the elections in February in view of health and safety of the people of the state," Nilam Sawhney opined.

She urged that the decision on the conduct of the election should be reconsidered. "It was brought to our attention that a video conference is being held today. We do not think video conferencing is necessary in the current context, "said CS Nilam Sawhney added.

However, Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar gave a strong counter to the latest letter written by Chief Secretary. He sent a strong message to Nilam Sawhney questioning how the latter could object to the Election Commission's autonomy. He said that the letter written by CS was unconstitutional. On the other hand, SEC Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar is all set to hold a video conference with all district authorities over local body elections on Wednesday.