Surveillance squads to keep watch on use of money in polls

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: “There is a possibility of using money to influence the voters during the election campaign. Various surveilling teams should keep a close eye on the possible places,” said Deelip Swami, the district collector and Election Returning Officer.

The Election Commission has appointed observers for this purpose and they have already entered the district and started their work. A meeting was held in this regard in the presence of Expenditure Observers K V Krishnan and Sobhan Sutradhar at the Collector's office on Wednesday.

Commissioner of Police Pravin Pawar, Superintendent of Police Dr Vinaykumar Rathod, Deputy Election Officer Devendra Katke and Expenditure Monitoring Nodal Officer Shekhar Kulkarni were also present.

He said that measures like increasing the patrolling of surveillance teams, the number of police and security forces in areas of various constituencies where money was used as an inducement to influence voters in the past or there is a background or possibility of it happening, should be taken. Swami said that these areas should be brought under the surveillance of CCTV cameras.

“Action should be taken on the basis of the information received from citizens or secret information from unknown persons of these areas, as per the directions given by the Reserve Bank of India and the Election Commission regarding the movement of cash. In this regard, the police bandobast should be planned in the respective areas,” he said.