Adhere to expenditure norms, contestants told

Warangal: Contestants in the Gram Panchayat elections were directed to submit the election expenditure to the audit officers every 3 days for scrutiny, failing which, they would be declared ineligible to participate in the elections for a period of three years. In case the violators of the expenditure clause win the elections they would be declared disqualified after scrutiny. Cautioning the contestants on the fallout of not adhering to submitting the poll expenditure on time, state election finance observer Srinivas directed the audit officers to evaluate the contestants' daily expenditure on proforma-1 and periodic expenditure on profarma-2 for every 3 days. In case the contestants did not spend on a single day, they should submit a NIL report. Observer Srinivas along with district collector-cum-district election officer G Kishan, JC P S Pradyumna, ZP CEO Anjaneyulu and ES Naik held a meeting with poll audit officers at Collectorate conference hall in Hanamkonda on Wednesday. Emphasizing the need for taking signatures of contestants or his/her poll agents, on the vouchers, audit officers were asked to make an abstract on the poll expenditure and display on the notice board. The contestants were asked to submit the final expenditure within 45 days from the date of election to the concerned Mandal Parishad Development Officers (MPDOs). The rival contestants, in case seek the poll expenditure of any other contesting candidate; audit officers can give them a copy. Village Revenue Officers had to coordinate with the candidates and with the audit officials in complying with submitting of the poll expenditure on the specified dates. Sarpanch contestants should not exceed the poll expenditure beyond Rs 80,000 if the population of the Gram Panchayat is over 10,000 and Rs 40,000 is the expenditure limit if the population of Gram Panchayat is less than 10,000. Ward members poll expenditure limit is Rs 10,000 and Rs 6,000 for major and minor Gram Panchayats, respectively. Observer Srinivas also made it clear that if a news report is carried in favour of a candidate it should be treated as the paid news. Information officials are asked to submit the paper cuttings of the paid news to concerned Mandal election officials for including in the contestants poll expenditure.