Ec Lists Out 40 Expenditure Sensitive Constituencies In Tamil Nadu

The election commission is putting in place the massive infrastructure and is drafting scores of officials across all 39 constituencies in TamilNadu and the lone seat in Puducherry just to track the flow of money. The commission has enough reason to be worried because out of the 110 seats identified as “expenditure sensitive” across the country, 40 are in this region alone. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar, Karnataka, and Gujarat account for the rest.

Apart from the IT department, the EC has roped in commercial banks also for tracking money flow. And on Wednesday even as the EC appointed retired IRS official Madhu Mahajan as special expenditure observer for Tamil Nadu, the authorities seized Rs 3.76 crore cash and 94 Kg gold worth Rs 5.63 crore from the state.

"We have so far seized Rs 12.8 crore in cash. Gold bars weighing 94 Kg were seized from a person going to Karur from Madurai. He did not have proper papers and could not explain the source,” said state chief electoral officer SAtyabrata Sahoo.

The EC has instructed banks to monitor accounts that had remained dormant for long but has become active now after the election date was announced. "Some dormant accounts have started getting deposits running into several lakh rupees. They are suspicious and we are monitoring them," quoted Sahoo.