Noida: District admin asks police to keep an eye on candidates’ expenses
Gautam Budh Nagar administration has told police to report candidates’ expenses to them
As assembly elections are round the corner, the district administration has asked the police to keep an eye on the expenditure incurred by various candidates and report the same to the authorities.
With three constituencies – Noida, Dadri and Jewar – going to the polls on February 11, the police personnel on election duty will also be conducting vehicle checks and surprise inspections of candidates.
Earlier, the election commission (EC) had announced that all candidates will have to open a fresh bank account for election expenditure and all expenses above Rs 20,000 will be made through cheques from their respective accounts.
The expenditure limit for each candidate in the state assembly elections has been set at Rs 28 lakh.
With regard to the regulations, the district administration held a meeting with senior police officials in Noida on Wednesday in which the police were asked to inform the accounting team about the expenditure they see candidates incurring during campaigning.
“The onus is on us to ensure that the polls are conducted according to the model code of conduct and the expenditure regulations. For this, we will need the police’s support. We have asked them to inform the accounting team immediately if they notice any candidate incurring expenses so that we can keep an updated record of their upper limit expenses,” said Umesh Chandrakant, election expenditure officer.
The police are also expected to conduct surprise inspections of candidates and vehicle checks to keep a tab on unregulated and unaccounted cash.
“If the police find Rs 50,000 or more in cash in any vehicle and the owner is unable to account for the source of the cash, the notes must be seized. However, if proper details about the cash are provided, it will not be seized. However, any amount over Rs10 lakh, even if found with proper details, must be intimated to the accounting team,” said Kumar Vineet, additional district magistrate, Gautam Budh Nagar.
Sujata Singh, superintendent of police (rural), said no policeman will be allowed to inspect any woman in the district.
“We will deploy female police personnel to check the belongings of women during inspection rounds. We will ensure that there is no unaccounted supply of cash during the poll season,” said Singh.
Expenditure committee to collect daily data from six teams
The local expenditure committee in-charge has directed members to collect daily data from six teams and the returning officer (RO).
“When I asked for a daily report on Thursday, some members said they have not collected it and the teams concerned claimed there was no activity. I have directed them to collect daily reports from the six teams even if it is a nil report,” said Nijlingappa, treasury officer and expenditure monitoring committee in-charge.
“The six teams include control room team, videography team, video viewing team, media certification and monitoring committee (MCMC), flying squads and static teams,” he said.
“Further, daily data will be collected from returning officers about the permissions granted by them for use of vehicles, rallies and road shows. This will help us calculate the expenditure incurred by candidates under different heads,” he said.
“Rates for items such as food items, tent structures, vehicle rent, advertisement and banner displays have been decided by the election commission. We will calculate the expenditure as per the EC rate card. Candidates too have been directed to do so accordingly in their expenditure details’ register. Then, we will tally their details with ours,” he said.