Eagle eye on cash deals

​Hyderabad: Taking a serious note of the increasing number of cases of seizure of huge money being registered post the announcement of election schedule in Telangana, the Election Commission of India on Tuesday paid special attention on the money transactions taking place across the state.

On the second day of the visit to the state, the EC officials held a daylong meeting with top officials from the Police department, Income-Tax, Excise, Commercial Taxes, District Election Officers (DEO), bank and airport authorities on their preparedness to curb the violation of model code mainly money and liquor distribution to lure the voters during the election season.

Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat instructed all the officials concerned to constitute a strong coordination team involving the vigilance wing of all departments to monitor money transaction in bulk in the banks and check illegal money transfers till the polling day on December 7 evening in the poll-bound state.The 11-member EC delegation reviewed the arrangements made so far by all the wings and the necessary steps need to be taken to curb election code violations.

The issues relating to maintenance of law and order, identification of hyper sensitive zones and requirement of additional forces were also discussed at the meeting. The ECI complemented all the DEOs and SPs (Superintendent of Police) on the improvement of preparedness for the elections. The CEC said that the Election Officers and SPs are the representatives of the commission at ground level and they are responsible for the conduct of free and fair elections. He instructed the officials to exhibit their professionalism and commitment in discharging their duties.

The officials were also asked to make special arrangements for the disabled, senior citizens and voters in remote and slum areas to exercise their franchise in a transparent manner. Rawat directed Telangana Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar to hold regular review meetings on the arrangements and address the problems encountered by the officials instantly.