Election commission talks tough against freebies

Taking strong exception to political parties distributing freebies to voters, Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Meena on Wednesday directed officials to initiate legal action against leaders trying to lure voters by giving them cookers, mixer grinders and other items.

Meena issued this diktat at a preparatory meeting with district election officers, superintendents of police, chief executive officers of zilla panchayats, assistant district election officers and other officials.

Senior officers from commercial tax, income tax, directorate revenue intelligence, Narcotics Control Bureau, Reserve Bank of India, ED, CISF, RPF and Post Office also attended the meeting.

“We are seeing media reports on a regular basis that some are distributing liquor coupons to voters. The excise department must keep track of how much liquor was consumed year on year basis to compare with the present period. Besides this, the departments must increase vigil at all checkposts in order to keep track of liquor movement from other states as well,” Meena said and stressed that the excise department must open more interstate check posts.

According to a statement issued by Meena’s office, all departments must exchange intelligence inputs freely with allied departments in order to track the movement of gold, cash and other valuable goods movement in the state.

The departments must take necessary action to deploy nodal officers in railway stations, ports and airports to keep track of goods movement, he said.

According to sources, authorities have been asked to track Unified Payments Interface (UPI)-based digital transactions. The departments must collect details of digital transactions that took place in the corresponding period of previous years to look for unusual increases in payments.

Mena also directed the officials to act immediately on those who make communally-sensitive speeches in the run-up to the Assembly election.