Tamil Nadu: CEC unveils action plan to check money abuse

Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi on Friday unveiled two-pronged strategy of strengthening enforcement mechanisms and promotion of ethical voting to curb the money abuse during the May 16 Assembly polls.

After a series of meetings to review preparations for the upcoming polls, he told reporters here that the main concern in Tamil Nadu was distribution of money and unveiled the two-pronged strategy to curb the “menace effectively.” 

“All the Assistant Commissioners (Income Tax) have been given special authorisation to act as deputy director investigation for purposes of election period and they are now fully operational in the past one or two days,” he said.

Stating that tax authorities will be working on “actionable intelligence,” he said the inputs would be available for “specially authorised staffers to take follow up action for detection of money and action against people.”

He said I-T department has fortified its strength of personnel in this regard and which is “quite sufficient” and the state has now more than 700 personnel. He said the EC, “would like to increase the number of expenditure observers from the present 32 to several folds. Action is already underway and this would be unprecedented.” 

In consultation with National Police Academy, probationary IPS officers will be deployed in the last week of electioneering to make flying squads more effective, he said.

Also, “certain number” of police and expenditure officers will also be deployed.