Various agencies under the Election Commission have seized Rs 558 crore worth of cash, freebies, liquor, drugs, and precious metals to stop any inducement of voters in ongoing elections in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and by polls. Operations in the state of Maharashtra alone have yielded about Rs. 280 crores since the announcement of elections. Another Rs. 158 crores worth of seizures from Jharkhand so far.
Combined seizures in the two poll bound states mark a 3.5 time increase as compared to Assembly Election in 2019 when Maharashtra recorded seizures worth
Rs. 103.61 crores while for Jharkhand, it was Rs. 18.76 crores.
The Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar had earlier directed all officials on ‘Zero Tolerance’ of the Commission towards any kind of inducements in elections. He also asked for joint teams from multiple agencies for clampdown on distribution and movement of illicit liquor, drugs, freebies, and cash.
Recently, during a meeting with CS, DGP, ExciseCommissioners and enforcement agencies of the two polls going states and theirneighbouring states and UTs, Mr Kumar while stressing on close vigil on movements across inter-state borders, also directed agencies to establish backward linkages of seizures for a wider deterrence.
Closer vigil is also kept in 110 Assembly Constituencies in the two states (Maharashtra -91 & Jharkhand -19) Constituencies which are marked as Expenditure
Sensitive Constituencies for more focussed vigil, according to Joint director of the commission, Mr Anuj Chandak.
The Commission’s cVIGIL App has also been an effective tool in the hands of citizens to flag election code violations. Since the announcement of the assembly elections and the by polls, 9681 complaints have been resolved through cVigil App as of today.
The disposal rate of the complaint has been over 98 per cent with over 83 per cent of the complaints being resolved in under 100 minutes.
The cVigil is user-friendly and easy to operate application, which connects vigilant citizens with the District Control Room, Returning Officer and Flying Squads Teams. By using this app, the citizens can immediately report on incidents of any election related violations and action is taken within a 100 minutes timeline.
While adopting a stringent approach against inducements to sway voters, theCommission has ensured that legitimate requests of political parties are responded
to transparently for a level playing field. In this regard, the SUVIDHA app has assisted political parties and candidates significantly. As many as 18,045 campaign related requests were approved in the ongoing elections including 8546 from Maharashtra and 6317 fromJharkhand, he said in a release.