Chennai: As money flows liker water without any hindrance in RK Nagar constituency, the Election Commission on Thursday intensified efforts to ensure “free and fair” elections by flying in its top officer to coordinate with enforcement agencies. Vikram Batra, Election Commission of India’s Director (Expenditure), will be in Chennai till the byelection is over on April 12 and will work in tandem with Chief Electoral Officer, Rajesh Lakhoni.
A special room is being readied for Mr. Batra at the State Secretariat. This is an unprecedented action on the part of EC which has dispatched so many special officers to monitor byelections.
Already, the EC has appointed 10 observers for the constituency of 2.68 lakh electorate and on Thursday micro observers began fanning across the area on motorcycles to check distribution of cash for votes. “Mr Batra will ensure coordination in the work of the observers who are already on the field,” sources said.
