As the pole dates comes closer, election Commission had appointed surveillance and expenditure monitoring teams which have recovered over Rs 64 crore in cash, including Rs 56.04 crore from Uttar Pradesh alone, and liquor and drugs.
As per official data, Punjab has witnessed the maximum seizure of drugs worth Rs 1.78 crore (heroine and poppy husk) followed by Goa valued at Rs 16.72 lakh while in Manipur amounted to Rs 7 lakh. UP has led the suspicious cash take-overs tally with Rs 56.04 crore (Rs 31.65 lakh in old notes) followed by Punjab at Rs 8.17 crore, Uttarakhand Rs 10 lakh and Manipur Rs 6.95 lakh.
In order to bribe voters so they stay in support, the amount of liquor seized was 1.98 lakh litres worth Rs 6.06 crore, in Uttar Pradesh while 10,646 litres of spirit has been seized in Punjab, valued at Rs 17.54 lakh
Officials said a total of “Rs 64.38 crore in cash, Rs 6.23 crore of liquor and over Rs two crore worth narcotics have been seized in the five poll-bound states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur, till data recorded upto January 17.”
The EC has appointed about 200 election expenditure observers apart from other central observers to keep a check on black money and illegal inducements used to bribe voters.
Assembly elections in UP, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur will be held between February 4 and March 8. Counting of votes for all states will take place on March 11.
