kammula@plato.engr.umbc.edu (Chandra Sekhar Kammula) (06/22/91)
************************************************* Source: [NEWSCLIPS/INFO.SERVICES.MAIL] MAIL/USA ************************************************* Subj: INDIAN POLLS POSTPONED IN VIOLENCE-PRONE PUNJAB NEW DELHI (JUNE 21) DPA - One day before polls were to held in the violence-prone north Indian state Punjab state to choose deputies for the federal parliament and the local legislature, officials Friday postponed the balloting schedule citing the deteriorating law and order situation in the area as the cause. The Election Commission said the polls will now be held on September 25. In the run-up to the polls, three Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament) and 19 local legislature candidates have been gunned down by suspected Sikh militants. Punjab sends 13 deputies to parliament and has a 124-member local legislature. The polling was due to be held Saturday amidst unprecedented security measures. Indian Army troops had been staging flag-marches since June 14 in Punjab, with the whole state declared a ''disturbed area'' as a prelude to the holding of ''free and fair elections''. The militants are demanding an independent state to be known as ''Khalistan'' (the pure one). According to Indian newspapers, an average of ten deaths have been reported every day from Punjab since the beginning of the year. During 1990, over 3,500 people were killed in the area. India's new Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao welcomed the move and said his party had boycotted the polls as it was against it. ''Let us watch the situation now'', he said. But the outgoing Premier Chandra Shekhar, who ordered the polls in the face of criticism from other parties, described the postponement as ''a dangerous step''. He said it would seen as a ''very unfortunate first step by the new government''. End of article