Thursday, January 20 2005 16:15 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Patna: Chief Election Commissioner (CES) T S Krishnamurthy today (Jan 20, 2005) expressed strong displeasure over the political use of the Justice U C Bannerjee committee report on the Godhra train blaze and warned if it was not stopped "extreme action" will follow.

"Do not use this report for political purposes and do not give communal colour to the findings of the report. If personal attacks are made on the basis of the report for taking political advantage it will invite tough action under the model code of conduct," Krishnamurthy, who was on a two-day visit of Bihar to review preparations for next month's Assembly elections told reporters.

Without naming former Railway Minister and JD-U (Janata Dal-United) leader Nitish Kumar, who had sought a ban on its use during elections CEC said, "Normally we give time to parties to improve but if they don't we will take extreme action, that we can take."

"We expect the parties to act with maturity and wisdom," Krishnamurthy said, adding during his talks with representatives of political parties yesterday (Jan 19, 2005) he had received complaints about a party trying to take political mileage out of it.

The entire issue is under examination by the commission to assess whether there was any violation of the model code, he said.

"If a party has given us assurance to abide by the model code and the law of the land we expect it to abide by it. If assurances are only on paper we will intervene and take stern action," he said, adding, "suitable action will be taken at an appropriate time against any party or individual found guilty."