The chief electoral officer (CEO) Uttarakhand Sowjanya has said that election commission is keeping a close eye on the suspicious transactions with the banks being asked to report transactions in excess of Rs 10 lakh to the commission.
Addressing media persons here on Tuesday, she said that the commission has deployed nine expenditure observers in all the five Lok Sabha constituencies of the state. In Almora, the commission has appointed one observer while in other constituencies, two overseers each have been appointed for the purpose, she said. She further said that after assessing the past records, the commission has identified ten Assembly segments where chances of election spending are more. Nainital- Udham Singh Nagar parliamentary seat has six such expenditure- sensitive segments while Haridwar has two and Tehri and Pauri have one such segment each.
Sowjanya said that the commission has deployed 730 teams which are keeping a constant vigil on the expenditure. She said that the after the enforcement of the model code of conduct, the commission has so far received 857 complaints on the C- vigil App of the commission and all of them have been disposed off within the stipulated time period of 100 minutes.
CEO Uttarakhand informed that the arrangements of webcasting from all vulnerable and critical polling booths have been made for the polling day. She said that the state has 11,235 polling booths and their number might increase. Sowjanya further said that reserve EVMs have been kept at the strategic locations so that in case of their malfunctioning, new machines can be used promptly. She informed that the vehicles used to transport the EVMs would be tracked by GPS technology. Sowjanya said that the first phase of randomization of the EVMs has been completed. A total of 13656 litre of liquor has been seized after enforcement of model code of conduct, she said and added that the coordination with the income tax department has also been made to keep an eye on expenditure and flow of cash. The commission has set up Air Intelligence Units at Jollygrant, Pantnagar and Pithoragarh, she informed.
