GHMC Elections: Election Commissioner caps poll spending at 5 lakh

Hyderabad: Telagana State Election Commissioner C Parthasarathi here asked the contestants in the ensuing Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections to have transparency in the poll expenditure.

The Commissioner had a meeting with the Election Expenditure Observers at the office of the SEC. He said that the election expenditure should be as per GHMC Act, 1955, rule 617 B. The details should be in a transparent manner.

The officials should ensure there is no distribution of liquor, cash or kind during the elections. The SEC asked the officials to make sure the candidates should not spend more than Rs 5 lakh as per the rules.

The election expenditure is of two types, one is related to expenditure on permitted public meetings, posters, party rallies, banners. The second is the expenditure which is not allowed as per rule like distribution of money, liquor and other gifts. Apart from this, the candidates are spending a lot of money in the form of paid news in the daily newspapers. These will also come under the election expenditure, said Parthasarathi, asking the officials to keep a watch on the advertisements given in the name of candidates by others. The SEC said that there will be expenditure observers along with the video surveillance teams in every circle. There will be flying squads, static surveillance teams, and expenditure sensitive units in all the circles. Similarly, there will be accounting teams in all the circles. There will also be audit officers and cooperative deputy registrars. The commissioner asked the officials to get the social media account details of the candidates contesting in the elections.

The Media Coordination Monitoring Committee (MCMC) would finalise the rates as per the newspaper tariff rates including poster, banners, electronic media etc.

The SEC wanted the officials to ensure the bank staff to have identity cards while they deposit money into the ATMs and keep a watch on the woman self help groups as the candidates may distribute money to these group women. The candidates should submit the details of expenditure at regular intervals.

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