Over Rs 1000 crore price of money, medication, liquor, freebies seized throughout meeting polls in 5 states

By PTI

NEW DELHI: With the Election Commission stepping up vigil, greater than Rs 1,000 crore price of money, medication, liquor and freebies have been seized up to now within the ongoing meeting polls in 5 states, an almost four-fold enhance in such seizures over the earlier spherical of elections in 2017.

According to an Election Commission assertion, Punjab topped the chart with complete seizures amounting to Rs 510.91 crore, adopted by Uttar Pradesh (Rs 307.92 crore), Manipur (Rs 167.83 crore), Uttarakhand (Rs 18.81 crore) and Goa (Rs 12.73 crore).

The complete seizures within the 5 states have been over Rs 1,018 crore, an almost four-fold enhance over the full seizures of Rs 299.84 crore made throughout the 2017 meeting elections in these states.

In the 5 states, the full money seizures amounted to Rs 140.29 crore, whereas greater than 82 lakh litres of liquor valued at Rs 99.84 crore was additionally confiscated.

Drugs price Rs 569.52 crore, valuable metals price Rs 115.054 crore and freebies price Rs 93.5 crore have been additionally seized.

“Apart from above mentioned seizure figures, the Commission’s visit galvanised enforcement authorities as the agencies seized drugs worth Rs 109 crore in Punjab and more than eight lakh litres of liquor in Uttar Pradesh in the run-up to the elections,” the Commission mentioned in an announcement.

The Commission mentioned it had strengthened monitoring of expenditure within the run-up to the elections within the 5 states by way of a multi-pronged technique.

“The strategy included appointment of experienced officers as Expenditure Observers, sensitising and reviewing a larger ambit of enforcement agencies for more coordinated and comprehensive monitoring, ensuring adequate availability of field level teams in the monitoring process,” an announcement from the Commission mentioned.

It mentioned 228 Expenditure Observers have been deployed and Special Expenditure Observers, who’re officers with impeccable and sensible observe file of area experience, too have been appointed for efficient monitoring.

The seven-phase meeting elections started on February 10 and can conclude on March 7. Votes will likely be counted on March 10.