Chennai: Tamil Nadu chief electoral officer Rajesh Lakhoni on Wednesday conducted strategic discussions with the first batch of central observers and income tax officials who had arrived to prevent cash for votes.
The close door meeting held at the secretariat discussed coordinations and plan of actions that has to be executed over the next three days in Chennai and neighboring districts.
According to public election department official sources, the three expenditure observers (IRS officers in the ranks of principal commissioners) Raju Sinha, Anuj Arora and B. V. Rao will be monitoring the existing complaint and redressal system in Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur districts. They will analyse the existing flying squad and static surveillance teams. The second batch of central observers will arrive next week and will focus on Vellore, Thiruvannamalai, Villupuram and Cuddalore districts.
These observer teams will have senior officers from IAS, IPS and IRS cadres and will be periodically shuffled by the ECI, sources said. To make the poll process more efficient and fool proof, the election commission of India had evolved several changes in its monitoring systems. In fact the central observers are also selected through online randomization and their tenure in a particular zone or state will periodically change, sources added.
When contacted CEO Lakhoni, he said the observers will meet the corporation and police commissioners on Thursday. The main objective of central team is to prevent cash for votes and freebies to voters. The IRS officers will also co ordinate with the regional income tax officials and monitor cash movements including heavy bank transactions.
The CEO also said that the ECI has appointed Cyberabad police commissioner C. V. Anand as ‘Special Observer’ for Tamil Nadu and Puducherry for a period of five days. He has been deputed by the ECI to monitor the static surveillance team, flying squad, video viewing and surveillance teams positioned in northern Tamil Nadu, he added.
It may be noted that last year, C V Anand was conferred the ECI Best Electoral Practices award for highest cash seizures in the country in the run up to the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
