Assam broke all earlier information in seizures of money, liquor, drug and different items after the meeting polls had been notified with a number of companies confiscating objects price over Rs 110 crore, Chief Electoral Officer of Assam Nitin Khade stated on Wednesday. During the 2016 state polls, central and state companies had seized items price lower than Rs 20 crore.
Addressing a press convention, Khade stated, “After the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) came into force on February 26 in view of the Assam assembly elections, cash and other valuables worth Rs 110.83 crore have been seized till date. “Till now, seizures of medication and narcotics price Rs 34.29 crore, over 16.61 lakh litres of liquor price Rs 33.44 crore, money amounting to Rs 24.50 crore together with gold, silver jewelleries and gold bars price Rs 3.68 crore have been made.” The items were seized from different parts of the state during search operations carried out by Assam Police, flying squads, static surveillance team, excise, and other enforcement and regulatory agencies, he said.
Freebies and other items like cigarettes of foreign origin, poppy seeds, black pepper, areca nuts, pan masala worth Rs 14.91 crore have also been confiscated, Kharda said. “So far, 50 FIRs have been registered throughout the state associated to expenditure violation and 5,234 FIRs lodged in reference to violation of excise guidelines,” the CEO said.
However, he did not share the number of persons who were detained and arrested in connection with the FIRs. Regarding MCC violations, Khade said, “A complete of two,696 circumstances have been registered. Out of those, 1,272 circumstances have been registered on-line by way of cVigil app of which 908 circumstances have been discovered to be appropriate.” After the polls were notified on February 26, all constituencies in Assam formed a minimum of three Static Surveillance Teams (SST) and Flying Squads (FS) each, with some even having six such teams.
“We have a minimal of 756 groups working throughout the state. The seizures by all state and central companies together with SST and FS have crossed all figures of final elections,” an official of the Election department said. Various regulatory agencies like Excise, Police, DRI, NCB, SLBC (SBI), Income Tax, RPF, CISF, CGST, SSB and BSF are engaged in enforcing MCC across the state and carrying out search operations and seizures.
While the first phase of elections was held on March 27, polling for 39 seats will be held in the second phase on April 1, and 40 in the third and final phase on April 6. Talking about the second phase of polling on Thursday, Khade said, “We are totally ready for it. Dispatch of polling and police officers started from yesterday.” In all, 345 candidates, together with 26 girls, are in the fray in this part, the polling for which shall be held from 7 am to six pm amid heavy safety and strict COVID-19 tips.
