Political parties sensitised about election expenses
The district administration on Thursday held a meeting with the representatives of different political parties to sensitise about maintaining election expenditure in accordance with the model code of conduct.
The district administration on Thursday held a meeting with the representatives of different political parties to sensitise about maintaining election expenditure in accordance with the model code of conduct.
Additional deputy commissioner Amarjit Paul said all candidates belonging to political parties would have to keep account of each transaction in the expenditure register from the time of filing the nomination papers.
The expenditure register maintained by the candidates will be reconciled by the returning officer with the shadow register maintained by the expenditure monitoring committee every third day.
Assistant commissioner (under training) Geetika Singh said the maximum expenditure limit for the candidates was Rs 70 lakh and it was mandatory to open a separate bank account for this purpose. Besides, the candidate can make cash payment up to Rs 20,000 only and payment over Rs.20, 000 would have to be made through cheque or draft.
To monitor the election expense of candidates, they will have to take permission for holding election/public rallies and will have to provide estimated expenditure in anneure-16. They were told that the estimated expenditure on tea, vehicles, tents etc will also be entered in shadow register.
In case a candidate accompanies a ‘star campaigner’ in a helicopter to address a rally, half of the expenditure of air travel will be added in candidate’s expenditure account.
The ADC said the process of filing nomination papers would start from April 2 and the candidates belonging to general category would have to deposit a security amount of Rs 25,000 and the candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste category would have to deposit Rs 12,500 through challan form 32.
He told the representatives that the langars during election rallies would be considered as extending gratification to woo the voters and hence this should be avoided. Carrying more than Rs 50,000 in cash and electionrelated publicity material worth more than Rs 10,000 by the candidate or in a vehicle of the candidate is illegal, it was informed.