Huge amount of cash, liquor seized during 4th phase
   Date :01-May-2019

 
 
NEW DELHI:
 
THE Election Commission said it has seized unaccounted money, illicit liquor, drugs and other inducements worth a total of Rs 3,274 crore in the fourth phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections on Monday. “Total cash seizure is Rs 785.26 crore, liquor (Rs 249.038 crore), narcotics (Rs 1214.46 crore), Gold and precious materials (Rs 972.253 crore) and other freebies (Rs 53.167 crore), which makes the grand total of Rs 3,274.18 crore,” said an official statement issued by the Election Commission. The poll watchdog said it appointed 97 expenditure observers in 72 parliamentary constituencies and 42 Assembly constituencies across the country that went to polls on Monday.
 
It was appointed to implement its instructions regarding election expenditure of candidates and for the seizure of unaccounted money, illicit liquor, drugs, and other inducements. In order to curb the abuse of money power during elections, the commission decided that each expenditure sensitive constituency would have two expenditure observers.
 
States with geographically difficult terrain have also been allotted a slightly larger number of expenditure observers so that there is better visibility and accessibility. As per the instructions of the EC, the States deployed adequate resources in terms of Flying Squads (FS), Static Surveillance Teams (SSTs) and Video Surveillance Teams (VSTs) in all the parliamentary constituencies and Assembly constituencies, the EC said.