500 cr required to conduct elections: Election Commission

Bengaluru: Do you know how much the Election Commission and the government have to spend to conduct the upcoming assembly elections - more than Rs 500 crores. A total of 224 MLAs are to be elected, and the election commission has to spend Rs 2 crore each.

The expenditure for the last assembly election was around Rs 394 crore. The Commission has estimated that Rs 500 crore may be needed this time due to inflation, price rise etc. This is the estimate so far and it is said that it may increase by Rs 10 to 12 crore.

The state government has already released Rs 300 crore. The remaining amount will be released in the next financial year. Sources in the state Chief Electoral Officer's office said that a proposal has already been sent to the government in this regard.

The cost is doubling every election. The expenditure for the 2013 assembly elections was around Rs 160 crore. In 2018, it was estimated that Rs 250 crore would be needed. But due to the use of VVPAT along with EVM, the cost reached Rs 394 crore.

Expenditure on various activities including voter list preparation, printing, printing of epic cards, voter awareness, training of election staff, duty allowance, transportation of EVMs and election materials, construction of check post, equipping of polling booth, strong room and counting centers, maintenance of election code of conduct enforcement teams.

Majority of the total expenditure incurred on the election goes to security expenditure and civil expenditure. Around Rs 100 to Rs 150 crores will be required for the security system made by the state police department. The cost of the security forces deployed by the Central Government is borne by the Central Government. Other civil expenses like voter awareness programs, deployment and training of staff and supervisors, construction of polling booths, printing of voter list, printing of identity card, transportation of election materials will require 45 to 50 percent of the total cost, sources said.

Election Commission has estimated that 10% will be required for the construction of check posts, 30% for the construction of vote counting centers, 30% for the construction of strong rooms, and 10% for the implementation of the code of conduct. Election cost depends on the number of polling booths. If the number of voters increases, the number of polling booths also increases. But the number of polling booths has not increased as much as last time. However, sources in the Chief Election Officer's office said that the civil cost is still there.

The State Chief Electoral Officer, Manoj Kumar Meena, said, This election may cost around Rs 500 crore. The government has already released Rs 300 crore.