By Express News Service

VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu in a letter to the Election Commission of India on Friday took exception to the reported remarks of Chief Electoral Officer Gopal Krishna Dwivedi that the Chief Minister does not have powers to review the functioning of the various departments.

In his 9-page letter, Naidu said the purpose of writing the letter was to bring out many instances of unilateral actions on the part of the Election Commission of India (ECI), since the declaration of elections and and seek directions to the CEO so that normal administration in the State goes on unobstructed and critical issues of citizens of the State and priorities of the people of the State and the Government that have seasonal confinements are immediately attended to.

In a veiled threat, he said, people of the state reserve the right to recover the cost overrun amounts from all concerned personally who come in the way of timely completion of these projects by initiating appropriate legal proceedings

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The Chief Minister, who claimed that in his 40-years of public life, he had never seen such badly conducted, logistically mismanaged and poorly organized elections said, “As part of my Constitutional responsibilities, I decided to review various departments of public importance like drinking water, Polavaram project, construction of new capital city and disaster management etc., But it was surprising and shocking to see the comments made by the CEO, that the Chief Minister does not have powers to review the departments.”

According to him, it not only affected the public perception of democratic governance but also the established conventions of Democratic Polity. “CEO's reported comments are without any jurisdiction as there is no such provision in the Model Code of Conduct that the Chief Minister cannot hold review meetings. Though I am duty bound and empowered to conduct review meetings, I am constrained by the embarrassing apprehensions faced by the concerned participating officers due to the reported misinformation spread by the CEO in the media,” he said.

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Naidu complained that the CEO was exceeding his jurisdiction and has even instructed Addl DG (Intelligence) who works directly under the control of the Chief Minister not to report to him. “I would like to know from ECI, whether the reporting authority of Addl DG (Intelligence) is also changed by it and if so, who is his reporting authority, if not the Chief Minister. Who will assess his performance and who will write his ACR? Do you want to say that Director (IB) and National Security Advisor are also prohibited from functioning under the Prime Minister and they are prohibited from meeting and briefing the Prime Minister?” he questioned.

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He said ECI cannot stop him from reviewing any of these projects or issues which are ongoing and do not violate any Model Code of Conduct. Since the electorate has already exercised their franchise, ECI has no jurisdiction to stop any review meeting by him “Since these works are seasonal and time-bound progress shall be achieved, so that the people of the state are not deprived of timely benefits of these projects,” he said and sought necessary directions from ECI to the CEO