GUWAHATI, April 27 - The long gap between the dates of polling and counting in Assam has seriously affected the State administration and though the Election Commission has relaxed the Model Code of Conduct after the voting was over, the situation has not improved much.
Highly placed official sources admitted before The Assam Tribune that though there is no bar in implementing the existing projects and maintaining the routine day-to-day affairs of the administration, very few senior officers are willing to take any risk and prefer to wait for the formation of the new government.
The Model Code of Conduct for the elections came into effect on March 4 and though the elections to the Assam Legislative Assembly were held in two phases in April 4 and 11, the counting of votes will take place only on May 19.
Giving an account of the problems faced by the State due to the long gap between the polls and the date of counting, official sources pointed out that after the declaration of the elections, the Ministers virtually become more like caretaker ministers and they hardly attend office or issue any directive to the officers. Of course, the government cannot take up new schemes or announce any major policy decision after the announcement of the election, but nothing bars the ministers to play their supervisory roles. However, the ministers hardly attend office or show any interest in the affairs of their departments.
Similarly, not all the senior officers take keen interest in the affairs of their departments during this period. The routine works of all the departments should have been on regularly, but in most cases, that has been lacking. The code of conduct does not prevent any officer to inspect the implementation of the existing schemes and carry out routine administrative works to ensure that the functioning of the administration is not affected during the elections.
