A total of 39.07 crore will be spent on conducting the parliamentary elections in Punjab. The amount for this purpose was released to respective deputy commissioners-cum-district election officers by the office of the chief electoral officer (CEO), Punjab, on April 9.
The funds have been allocated to districts depending on the number of assembly constituencies in each district, past record of expenditure in a district, postings of staff on poll duty, the number of polling booths, level of sensitivity of a particular parliamentary constituency and other factors.
Ludhiana district, with the highest number of assembly constituencies (14), has been allotted Rs 4.64 crore, followed by Amritsar district (11 assembly seats, Rs 3.51 crore), Patiala (8 assembly seats, Rs 2.68 crore), Hoshiarpur (7 assembly seats,
Rs 2.5 crore), Gurdaspur ( 7 assembly seats, Rs 2.4 crore) and Jalandhar (9 assembly segments, Rs 2.1 crore). A big chunk of the funds, Rs 21.21 crore, would be spent on payments for professional and special services in the form of honorarium to staff on duty on polling day, while Rs 8.19 crore would be spent on paying for motor vehicles hired for the movement of officials and staff on poll duty during electioneering, and Rs 4.68 crore for buying petrol and diesel for vehicles.
A sum of Rs 5.85 crore would be spent on other administrative works, whereas Rs 3.78 crore would be the expenditure on other office-related work and Rs 3.62 crore on publication of election-related material.
Deputy CEO Sukhdev Lal said the entire amount sanctioned to the state for conducting the Lok Sabha elections had been distributed among the districts.
A sum of Rs 5.85 crore would be spent on other administrative works, whereas Rs 3.78 crore would be the expenditure on other office-related work and Rs 3.62 crore on publication of election-related material.
Deputy CEO Sukhdev Lal said the entire amount sanctioned to the state for conducting the Lok Sabha elections had been distributed among the districts.
He hoped that the elections would be managed properly with these funds, but added that if expenditure exceeded the allocated funds, these would be provided to the districts concerned.