Delhi Assembly elections are causing a major drain on the public exchequer as 95 observers (70 general observers and 25 financial expenditure observers) appointed by the Election Commission of India (ECI) have been put up in five-star hotels instead of State guesthouses.
These observers are senior IAS officers from the different States who will be monitoring the Model Code of Conduct in the 70 Assembly seats while 25 financial observers have been appointed for monitoring the expenses incurred by the different candidates. What is more galling is the fact that the Finance Department of Delhi Government has fixed Rs 5,000 per day (which includes room rent, breakfast, lunch, dinner) for the observers who have been appointed by the ECI. In other words, the Rs 9 lakh to Rs 10 lakh is being spent on 95 observers per day for Delhi elections that exclude travelling bills, taxi fare. Delhi will go to polls on December 4.
On an average, an observer appointed by the ECI to monitor the polls stays for a period of 15 days or so and his expenses involving the ‘air travel’, are to be borne by the State that he or she visits. All poll observers are provided security by the State Government during their stay. The amount is expected to run into several crores of rupees. This five-star facility to the visiting poll observers has caused consternation among city bureaucracy, which feels that the same is never extended to them when they go on poll duty as election observers. They are made to stay in State guesthouses but the same yardstick changes for the observers who come to Delhi for the same, an official quipped.
Sources told The Pioneer that general observers and financial observers appointed by the ECI have been given five-star treatment and they have been put up in swanky five-star hotels instead of State guesthouses and Bhawans. Strangely, some observers have come from neighbouring districts of Noida and Ghaziabad and they have been extended this largesse as well. In 2008 Assembly polls, the observers were put up in Samrat, Centaur and Janpath hotels.
Now, a fresh proposal has been moved to the ECI to hike the expenses as that was too meagre since the same expense in 2008 was pegged at Rs 9,000 a day. Apart from footing the daily bills for providing a comfortable stay to the observers, the State is also supposed to pick up the tab for their travel expenses as well. The inflation rate has been 10 times higher compared to 2008 but the amount of expenditure on observers has been curtailed.
It is estimated that the total budget for conducting Assembly polls in Delhi is estimated around Rs 60 crore-Rs 65 crore and total 78,000 civilian and 55,000 police and Central police forces have been deputed for election duty. As per information, 20 observers for East and South-West Delhi have been put up in Umrao resort on NH-8. The observers for New Delhi and North district have been put up at The lalit. Similarly, observers for South Delhi have been put up at the Grand Hyatt. The observer for West district have been provided accommodation at Radisson while North-West district observers have been put up at Crowne Plaza, Sector 11, Rohini.