With three more phases of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections still left, cash seizures have already surged 156.3% from the 2014 polls.
Image Courtesy: PTI
New Delhi: The Election Commission said it has seized unaccounted money, illicit liquor, drugs and other inducements worth a total of Rs 3274 crore in the fourth phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections on Monday.
“Total cash seizure is Rs 785.26 crore, liquor (Rs 249.038 crore), narcotics (Rs 1214.46 crore), Gold and precious materials (Rs 972.253 crore) and other freebies (Rs 53.167 crore), which makes the grand total of Rs 3274.18 crore,” said an official statement issued by the EC as reported by ANI.
With three more phases of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections still left, cash seizures have already surged 156.3% from the 2014 polls, Hindustan Times reported.
Since the seven-phase elections started on April 11, the total amount of cash seized across the country amounts to Rs. 778.9 crore. In comparison, by the end of the 2014 elections, the total amount of cash seizures was Rs. 303.86 crore, the report said.
The figure, which is updated daily by the Election Commission of India includes cash, liquor, drugs narcotic, gold and other precious materials in seizures.
“Tamil Nadu was the state with the highest haul of gold at 3,063 kg worth Rs 708.71 crore, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 1,263 kg and Uttar Pradesh at 709 kg. At Rs 215.14 crore, Tamil Nadu accounts for the highest number of cash seizures, and close on the heels is Andhra Pradesh with Rs 137.27 crore and then Telangana, with Rs 68.82 crore,” HT reported.
“Apart from that, this year, 62 metric tonnes of drugs and narcotics worth Rs 1185.4 crore have been seized. Uttar Pradesh accounts for the highest haul, with 19.4 tonnes. Polling in the state has been spaced out across all the seven phases, and so, the amount is expected to rise,” the report said.
In 2014, 7.64 tonnes of drugs were seized.
Till now,132.6 lakh litres of liquor have been seized during these elections with Maharashtra accounting for 32.24 lakh litres, worth Rs 25.24 crore, followed by Uttar Pradesh with 15.54 lakh litres and West Bengal with 14.06 lakh litres, the report said.
The total amount of liquor seized in 2014 was 65 lakh litres.
“The poll watchdog said it appointed 97 expenditure observers in 72 parliamentary constituencies and 42 assembly constituencies across the country that went to polls on Monday. It was appointed to implement its instructions regarding election expenditure of candidates and for the seizure of unaccounted money, illicit liquor, drugs, and other inducements,” ANI reported.
In order to curb the abuse of money power during elections, the commission decided that each expenditure sensitive constituency would have two expenditure observers. States with geographically difficult terrain have also been allotted a slightly larger number of expenditure observers so that there is better visibility and accessibility.
As per the instructions of the EC, the states deployed adequate resources in terms of Flying Squads (FS), Static Surveillance Teams (SSTs) and Video Surveillance Teams (VSTs) in all the parliamentary constituencies and assembly constituencies, the EC said.
The number of expenditure observers was 97, assistant expenditure observers (492), FS (1761), SSTs (1757), VSTs (1080), video viewing team (618) and accounting team (543).
Voting was held on Monday for 72 seats across nine states including five seats in Bihar, one in Jammu and Kashmir, three in Jharkhand, six each in Madhya Pradesh and Odisha, 13 each in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, eight in West Bengal and 17 in Maharashtra.
An overall voter turnout of 64.05 per cent was registered in the fourth phase of polling.
Seven-phase elections will end on May 19, and results will be declared on May 23.