Traders, including jewellers, who are facing difficulties because of the rampant seizures of cash, gold and other precious metals will heave a sigh of relief as the Election Commission of India has directed the State election officials to “go lenient if the case is genuine”.
The ECI, at the same time, inquired with them about the cases relating to seizure under Section 102 of the Cr.P.C. In another major decision, the Election Commission has directed Chief Electoral Officer Vikas Raj and his team to add the cost of the freebies in the accounts of the candidates concerned once their nominations are approved.
Senior Deputy Election Commissioners Dharmendra Sharma and Nitesh Kumar Vyas accompanied by senior officials from the ECI gave these directions to the State authorities. The ECI team flew from New Delhi before issuing notification to ascertain the poll preparedness and foolproof arrangements for conducting free and fair elections in the State scheduled for November 30.
The ECI team instructed the enforcement agencies as well as the State departments to find out the transportation routes pertaining to liquor and narcotics in a novel way instead of traditional methods. The team was satisfied with the steps taken by the election authority like setting up an integrated control room and monitoring applications like Suvidha and C-Vigil. The team members were particular about the time taken for clearance of applications of voter lists and the status of printing and distribution of the EPIC cards. The ECI insisted that clearances relating to the MCMC certificates be issued on a daily basis without any delay.
Mr. Dharmendra Prasad enquired about the status of setting up surveillance cameras at key polling stations and directed the State officials to issue prescribed forms for postal ballots well in advance to senior citizens and persons with disabilities who wished to vote from the comfort of their homes. He also inquired about the arrangements being made for these category of voters at the polling stations.
Meanwhile, the enforcement agencies on Wednesday seized ₹6.09 crore cash taking the total cash seizure to more than ₹150 crore and liquor, estimated to cost ₹5.12 crore. Liquor seizures since the election schedule was announced on October 9 reached ₹44.94 crore with Wednesday’s seizures.
Total seizures including precious metals (₹19.93 lakh) and other freebies like laptops from 9 a.m. on Tuesday to 9 a.m. on Wednesday) reached ₹427.15 crore in the past 25 days.
