Expenditure observers hold meeting with ARO’s, AEO’s & other senior District Administration officials

Ludhiana, May 7, 2024: District Election Officer Sakshi Sawhney on Tuesday explained the Election Expenditure observers about the arrangements made by the district administration for expenditure monitoring during general elections in the district.

During a review meeting with the Election Expenditure Observers Pankaj Kumar, IRS and Chetan D Kalamkar, IRS, Sawhney said that the district administration was fully committed for holding free, fair and transparent polls in Ludhiana. She apprised the observers that the administration has already set up various cells and committees to keep a close tab over the poll expenditure being incurred by the candidates during the run up for the elections. These cells included district level expenditure monitoring cell, Media Certification & Monitoring Committee, district level Complaint cell, C-vigil monitoring cell, besides and others, she said adding that the proper training has also been imparted to functionaries of these cells.    

The DEO further added that to keep a close tab over the expenditure incurred by the parties and candidates, various teams have been deployed in the field including 126 FSTs, 27 VSTs, 126 SSTs, 15 Account teams and 20 AEOs and MCMC to keep close tab over poll expenditure. She also stated that till to date, the administration has booked poll expenditure worth Rs 1.11 crore of various political parties and seizures of drugs, liquor, cash and other items worth Rs 30.16 crore have already been made. 

Sawhney said that the Flying Squad Teams and Static Surveillance Teams comprise officers both from the civil and Police administration have been given GPS enabled vehicles in which cameras have also been installed. She said these officers have been assigned duties as per the shifts to ensure that a proper check was kept over election expenditure by candidates. She further apprised the observers that these cells have been mandated to keep shadow observation registers to account the expenditure being made by the candidates during the elections. She said that these registers would be then compared with those maintained by the candidates at regular intervals as per the directions of the Expenditure Election Observers. 

Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development) Anmol Singh Dhaliwal, Assistant Returning Officers from all 14 assembly segments, Assistant Election Observers, and Nodal Officers of various cells and committees were present in the meeting.