EC seizures can fund half of election costs

The value of the seizures- black money, drugs and booze- by EC has already touched Rs.1,100 crore, enough to half-fund the budget for carrying out the world’s largest elections.

Updated on: Apr 24, 2014, 02:37:46 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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It is just a fraction of the black money, drugs and booze being splurged by political parties this poll season. But the value of the seizures by Election Commission has already touched Rs.1,100 crore, enough to half-fund the budget for carrying out the world’s largest elections.

EC-staff-member-holds-an-envelope-containing-polling-material-after-collecting-an-electronic-voting-machine-and-other-election-material-at-a-distribution-centre-on-the-eve-of-polls-in-Mumbai--AFP-photo

The seizures include 13 million litres of liquor, enough to fill 43 swimming pools; over 20.71 lakh kg of narcotics and a whopping Rs. 240 crore. The total worth of the confiscated items is a record high, the commission officials said.

The value of these items, confiscated since the model code came into force on March 5, is around Rs. 1,110 crore. And it is besides the Rs. 50 crore seized by the income tax department.

Put together, the seizures account for more than half of the poll panel’s initial expenditure estimate for conducting the nine-phase elections — Rs. 2,000 crore. Five years ago, Rs. 1,300 crore was the poll expenditure.

But for PK Dash, director general in-charge of expenditure monitoring in the commission, it shows “higher spending by candidates or their agents” despite the per constituency expenditure limit being increased to up to Rs. 70 lakh.

But rather than help stop the inflow of black money, it has resulted in an increase as the commission believes that seizures are less than 10% of the total black money in circulation to bribe voters.

“The truth of the Indian elections is money and muscle power. It cannot be curbed unless the government brings in legislative checks,” said Jagdeep Chhokar, co-founder of the Association for Democratic Rights.

In Punjab, where voters are being lured with drugs, the commission has seized narcotics worth Rs. 550 crore. Chhattisgarh ranks high on the seizure of ganja (cannabis).

Confiscated cash and liquor, especially in the southern states, have given the poll body another headache — of keeping these in safe custody since these are case property and have to be produced in a court as evidence. While drugs and liquor are destroyed after the cases are disposed of, the money is deposited with the revenue department.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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