Friday, 22 March 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The expenditure observers appointed by the Election Commission will monitor the expenditure incurred by the candidates in filing their nomination papers in all the five Lok Sabha constituencies in Uttarakhand. Interacting with the media persons the Joint Chief Electoral Officer (JCEO) Namami Bansal said on Thursday that the expenditure observers have arrived in the State and they will start monitoring things from Friday. She said that action is being taken to prevent misuse of liquor in the elections. She said that 450 litres of liquor was seized in Mukteshwar and 600 litres was confiscated in Champawat on March 20.
Bansal said that liquor worth Rs three crore was seized in the Lok Sabha elections of 2019 while Rs 4.70 crore liquor was confiscated in the assembly elections of 2022. The commission has constituted 497 flying squads to prevent misuse of liquor in the elections. Monitoring by CCTV is being done at 628 distribution centres of liquor, eight bottling plants and distilleries in the State. Bansal added that GPS tracking systems have been placed on all the vehicles engaged in distribution of liquor.
On the election boycott of the JCEO said that in the Lok Sabha elections of 2019, people in 10 booths of the State had boycotted the elections. Most of these booths were in Uttarkashi while voters in one booth each in Sahaspur, Ghansali and Haridwar rural had boycotted elections. She said that no complaint regarding boycott of elections has been received so far this time. All the 5625 complaints posted on the C-Vizil App have been disposed of. Bansal further informed that there were 30 booths in P-3 category ( where the polling parties depart three days before the voting) in the LS elections of 2019 but this time the number of P-3 booths is 12. Eleven out of 12 P-3 booths are located in Uttarkashi district while one such booth is in Dharchula in Pithoragarh.
