Andhra HC suspends SEC order restricting ration vehicles

Amaravati, Feb 15 (SocialNews.XYZ) In a major relief to the Andhra Pradesh government, the High Court on Monday suspended the State Election Commissioner (SEC) Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar's orders restricting rice door delivery service during the ongoing elections.

The High Court said the State Election Commission cannot stop the government from using mobile delivery vehicles to supply food to the people.

Earlier, Kumar ordered that the government cannot use these mobile vehicles for a period of four weeks, in view of the ongoing rural local bodies' elections.

The SEC personally examined a delivery vehicle to see if these vehicles will allegedly exert any influence on the polls as they would fan out across the nooks and corners of the villages, carrying ration rice for beneficiaries.

Many decisions of Kumar are being challenged in the Court and there seems to be no end to the bickering between the state and the SEC.

Earlier, he issued a gag and home confinement order on Panchayat Raj Minister Peddireddi Ramachandra Reddy which was also suspended by the Court.

The Court is also poised to hear a case on Civil Supplies Minister Kodali Sri Venkateshwara Rao, against whom the SEC ordered a case to be registered.

The commission has already successfully completed two phases of rural local bodies elections, even as two more are due.

On Monday, Kumar had also issued the election schedule for 12 municipal corporations and 75 more municipalities across the state.

The southern state will be in the grip of elections all through February till mid-March.

Source: IANS