The assembly constituencies of Chhattisgarh’s Raipur (West) and Raipur (South) have been declared as ‘expenditure sensitive’ said Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) O P Rawat on Thursday.
Additional and tight monitoring of the expenditure being made by the candidates would be done, he said while addressing a press conference here after carrying out a review of poll preparations in the State by a full Commission on Thursday.
On a query on expenditure cap for candidates but not for party, Rawat replied that there is a limit for the candidate but Commission has approached the Home Ministry over the issue.
“It has been found that candidates in cover of party have been spending more as the expenditures were being added in the party expenses”, he said.
“The matter is under consideration with the Home Minister, whether to club the expenditure of individual candidate and party together and then fixing a limit of expenditure, or putting the cap on expenditure of the party also during the election,” Rawat added.
“Now, we have undertaken the process that if the party advertisement or related publicity material under the party banner carries the photograph of the candidate or any other matter concerning individual candidate, then it is added in the expenditure account of the candidate,” the CEC pointed out.
Rawat said that cash seizure till date amounts to Rs 3,67,23,090 when compared to Rs 3.33 crore in 2013 while freebies total amount is Rs 3,33,24,576 against Rs 53,54,477 in year 2013. Similarly, illegal liquor (in litres) of Rs 44,706.70 and drugs & narcotics Rs 1,76,000 (22.16 kg) had been seized.
Meanwhile, the Commission has also directed the local officials to ensure effective steps to be taken on preventing distribution of cash/token and gifts, misuse of liquor and narcotic substances during the election process period.