Candidates will need poll bank account
Poll candidates will now be monitored with a separate “shadow” expenditure register and will have to open an exclusive election bank account under the new guidelines framed by the Election Commission to check flow of illegal money.
The commission has set up for the first time an Election Expenditure Monitoring (EEM) cell headed by a senior Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax) officer and support staff.
The new guidelines for expenditure in elections will come into force with the Bihar Assembly polls scheduled in late October and the cell in the Commission headquarters will operate 24x7 with its control rooms working in each district of the state where elections are being held. The EC will also field surveillance teams and flying squads in each police station area of the constituencies which will have the power to search and seize illegal and suspicious cash. “If unexplained cash is found in possession of any person, it will be immediately seized. The flying squads will also watch distribution of cash, liquor or any other bribes to the voters,” sources said.
The sleuths in the teams, drawn from tax and revenue departments, will keep vigil over expenditures made by a candidate beginning from the filing of nomination till the declaration of the result. The candidates will also have to open an exclusive bank account and the monitoring teams will maintain a “shadow” expenditure register in the same format as maintained by the candidate, they said.
The new guidelines also envisage arrangements for a “video surveillance and viewing team” for each candidate, comprising an officer and a clerk, to watch, tabulate and prepare report of expenditure after gleaning through the video footage every day.
The video surveillance team will consist of a cameraperson who will record the number of vehicles, tents, furniture, dais, rostrums, barricades, posters, hoardings put up by the candidate.
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