MillenniumPost
Bengal

Upper limit of expenditure for civic polls increased

Kolkata: The state Election Commission (SEC) has increased the upper limit of expenditure for the candidates who will be contesting at the municipal corporation and the municipality elections.

The Commission has already announced the dates for Kolkata Municipal Corporation scheduled on December 19. As per recent notification of SEC, in a ward where the number of voters are 50001 and above, the upper limit of expenditure will be Rs 4 lakhs. This upper limit was Rs 3 lakhs as per a notification released in August 2013.

In wards where the number of voters are between 10001 to 50000, the upper limit of expenditure will be Rs 8 per elector and in cases where the number of electors are upto 10,000, the maximum expenditure can be Rs 80,000. This limit was Rs 6.00 per voter and Rs 60,000 respectively.

In case of municipalities, a candidate's upper limit has been fixed at Rs 42,000 in wards where the number of voters is 6000 or less. For wards with 6001 to 10000 voters, the amount will not exceed Rs 7.00 per elector. Earlier, the upper maximum ceiling of expenditure was Rs 30000 and Rs 5 per elector respectively .

The August 2013 order regarding the maximum expenditure was applicable in the civic body elections in 2013. As many as 392 candidates were disqualified for flouting the expenditure order during the last municipal elections in Bengal.

The SEC does not have any expenditure observer but has its own mechanism of keeping tab on expenditure.

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