Jabalpur, Oct 23: Madhya Pradesh High Court today asked a consumer rights group to move the Election Commission to adjudicate whether Digvijay Singh government's pre-assembly poll sops of free power connection to small farmers and waiving their electricity bills for the whole of this year were violative of the model code of conduct. A division bench of the court comprising Chief Justice Rajaratnam and Justice Dipak Mishra also asked the state government to pay within 14 days Rs 50 crores out of a total outstanding of Rs 184 crore to Madhya Pradesh State Electricity Board (MPSEB). The high court orders came on a writ petition filed by president of Nagrik Upbhokta Margdarshak Manch P G Nazpandey who had challenged the state government's order of September 27 by which small farmers were given free power connections and users of one hp to five H P Motor Pumps were exempted from paying the electricity bill from January 01 to December 2003. The bench directed that the petitioner can make a representation to the Election Commission which would decide whether the sops were in breach of the model code of conduct in view of the state assembly elections.

Bureau Report