Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Nov 20: Clearly indicating dramatic increase in the level of corrupt practices during the elections to induce voters despite various measures to curb the malpractices, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday disclosed that drugs, cash, freebies, liquor and precious metals worth over Rs 1,760 crore have been seized from the five states where Assembly elections are currently underway.
This was a record seven times more haul as compared to the polls in 2018, the ECI said. Polling in the Assembly elections have already completed in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram while it would be held in Rajasthan on November 25 and Telangana on November 30.
The maximum seizure of ₹659.2 crore has been made from Telangana, closely followed by Rajasthan at ₹650.7 crore. In Mizoram, no cash or precious metal was seized, but drugs worth ₹29.82 crore were recovered by authorities. The total seizure from the state was ₹49.6 crore, the ECI said in a statement. It also said the figures of seizures are likely to rise even further by the time the polling was completed in all the five states.
The seizures made since polls were announced on October 9 were aimed at inducing voters. In the 2018 Assembly polls, goods and cash worth ₹239.15 crore were seized from these five states.
The commission said seizures worth over ₹1,400 crore were made in the past six State Assembly elections held in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Tripura and Karnataka, 11 times more than made in the previous assembly polls in these states.
This poll body said in this round of Assembly polls, it had embedded technology into the monitoring process through the Election Expenditure Monitoring System (ESMS) which is proving to be a catalyst. The ESMS has brought a wide array of central and state enforcement agencies together for better coordination and intelligence-sharing.
The ECI has deployed 228 officers from various services as expenditure observers. For close monitoring, 194 assembly constituencies were marked as “expenditure sensitive” seats. The Commission also held reviews with Chief Secretaries, DGPs, Excise Commissioners, DG (Income Tax) and other senior officers of poll-going States and their respective neighbouring States and Union Territories.