In yet another measure to curb the influence of money during elections, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has joined hands with the Income Tax (I-T) department and its vigilance arm, said Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi.
ECI has set up a separate division to monitor election-related expenditure and explore effective means to tackle excessive use of money power during polls. The expenditure-monitoring wing would have access to information with I-T department, said Quraishi.
Quraishi said one of the major issues in all upcoming elections would be to tackle election-related expenditure. “We have seized about Rs 2-3 crores in the run-up to the Bihar elections recently,” he added.Apart from an expenditure observer, hereafter the CEC would have a micro-expenditure observer too who would keep close watch on election-related expenditure by candidates with the help I-T department, Quraishi added.
Quraishi was talking at an open house discussion on “Free and Fair Elections – Combating Money/Muscle Power,” jointly organised by a group of Chennai-based Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO), here on Saturday.
Quraishi said that the best ways .of curbing money distribution during election would be to nab the culprits red-handed. In this direction a 24/7 complaint cell has been set up by CEC to facilitate receipt of complaints from the public. Immediate action would be taken on the complaints received, he assured.A memorandum was presented by a group of NGOs to the CEC. The memorandum highlighted several issues like postponement of elections in constituencies where model code of conduct was violated.
Terming the memorandum as ‘Chennai Memorandum’, Quraishi said the open house discussion would be a historical moment for ECI and people of Tamil Nadu.
The CEC said said paid news was another serious issue the CEC was trying to address.
The media division at CEC would facilitate constitution of a committee at the district level that would keep an eye on paid news. Press council of India has also been asked to suggest ways to curb paid news.
Quraishi further said that a few days back a meeting was held, where six national and 36 state political parties participated to discuss the problem of paid news and criminalisation of politics.
Responding to a question on defects in Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), Quraishi said the commission has referred the matter to an expert but as far as commission was concerned, EVM’s were flawless.
N. Gopalaswami, former chief election commissioner and Praveen Kumar, Chief Electoral Officer, Tamil Nadu participated in the discussion.
