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EC Team meeting with NGOs fail: Civil society insist on shunting out of CEO

EC Team meeting with NGOs fail: Civil society insist on shunting out of CEO

Aizawl, Nov 6 (UNI) After much confabulation and deliberations at a high-level meeting presided over by the Chief Secretary Arvind Ray and attended by a special Election Commission delegation and the NGO leaders in Mizoram, the civil society leaders on Tuesday stuck to their demand for the early removal of the state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S B Shashank.
The meeting was attended by Jharkhand CEO L Khiangte, and also comprising Nikhil Kumar, Director at Election Commission and S B Joshi, Secretary Election Commission and top NGO leaders including representatives from the potent Young Mizo Association (YMA) representatives led by the Chairman Vanlalruata.
The special EC delegation has been deputed by the EC to defuse the crisis arising out of the demand for the outster of CEO S B Shashank.
According to official sources, the meeting began on a cordial note but did not much headway in convincing the civil society leaders to have a rethink on their demand.
The Mizo civil society leaders feel Mr Shashank's complaint against a Mizo IAS officer and the then Principal Home Secretary was 'unwarranted' and also that the CEO's actions were seen as being 'pro-Brus'.
Brus have been demanding setting up of polling stations at relief camps in Tripura - a move opposed vehemently by the Mizo society.
"In one way, the meeting remained inconclusive as the Election Commission team later said that they will place the details of the deliberations with the poll panel and the final decision will have to be made by the full commission only," a source told UNI on the condition of anonymity.
However, YMA sources said even as the EC will take its time to deliberate on the issue the 'protest demonstration and gherao' of the CEO's office at Aizawl will continue or may be revived from Wednesday yet again.
"Our demand is clear. Shashank should be out and the Bru voters in the Tripura relief camps should not be given any undue privilege of setting up polling stations in relief camps. Bru refugees willing to repatriate to Mizoram as part of the agreement signed earlier this year should exercise franchise in their respective polling stations inside Mizoram like other citizens do in Mizoram or any other state," the YMA source said.
Earlier in the day, thousands of Mizo students, NGO activists and common people took to the streets and 'gheraoed' CEO's office here.
The protestors called off stir in the afternoon and agreed to meet the special delegation sent by the Election Commission.

Protest meetings have been reported from other parts of the state also. The NGO Coordination Committee in Mizoram-Tripura-Bangladesh border town Mamit forced a total shut down on Tueaday - also supporting the demand for CEO Shashank's ouster.
The NGO Coordination Committee also appealed to the Federation of Mizoram Government Employees and Workers (FMGEW) to support the agitation and cease work from Tuesday.
Pressure seemed to be mounting on Election Commission, which had ordered replacement of a Mizo IAS officer and former Principal Home Secretary Lalnunmawaia Chuaungo last week, on Tuesday deputed a three-member headed by a Mizo IAS officer from Jharkhand to visit the state.
Mizoram goes to the polls on November 28.
In quite unprecedented developments, Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla and also state BJP chief J V Hluna in their letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday demanded the ouster of CEO Shashank.
UNI DEVN RSA 2118

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