Winding up his three-day visit to Assam Chief Election Commissioner B. B. Tandon also expressed concern over the slow progress of the process of detecting names of votes against whom non-bailable warrants have been pending execution for over six months. Mr. Tandon told the media in Guwahati that of 11, 937 such cases, notice had been sent to 2073 people and only 1473 names stuck off the electoral roll so far. He pointed out that in Bihar over 1.5 lakh such names were deleted from the Voters’ list within three months of the directive being issued.

“We in the commission are not satisfied with the progress of Assam in this regard and I have directed both the civil and police administration to work with better coordination and execute the task. If a warrant cannot be executed for more that six months, it should be presumesed that the person is no linger residing in tat place and so his name should not figure in the voters’ list, “ the CEC said. He revealed that the EC would study the rules governing the ceasefire agreements between the government and militant groups to ensure that their members would not take advantage of the situation and affect the election process.

On suggestion by most political parties that elections should be conducted before Rongali Bihu beginning April 13, Mr., Tandon said he could take a decision based on factors such as timings of festivals, climatic conditions, availability of security programmes and exam schedule.

The CEC said he would like Delhi to take a decision on the 44 recommendations by the Election Commission for poll reforms well before elections in Assam and other states. One of the suggestions is to debar a person against whom prima-facie charge has been framed in court from contesting any election. “The government has forwarded the recommendations to a parliamentary committee. We have taken up the matter at the highest level of the government and we are told that the government is trying to evolve a political consensus on the issues raised by us. Once these recommendations are implemented, Indian polity will be cleansed of criminals to a large extent,” said Mr. Tandon. The EC is also evaluating safeguards for officials who are targeted by vindictive governments for initiating action against the ruling party during elections.

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