Chennai: In a first of its kind initiative and to curb the incidence of cash for votes, the Election Commission of India has asked to rope in youngsters as informers in the poll bound Tamil Nadu, Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Lakhoni told DC on Tuesday.
So far the election department has roped in 21,300 youth and most of them are from rural villages. These volunteers will provide basic intelligence on freebies or any other suspicious act by politicians at ward levels. The youngsters after a basic orientation are provided contact numbers of returning officers and district level election officers.
They are also informed about how to convey messages to flying squads, static surveillance teams and to co ordinate with election control room. To ensure their safety the identity of these youngsters will not be revealed. It is based on the information from these volunteers, the department as doubled the cash seizure (so far Rs 55 crore) when compared to Rs 25 crore in 2014 Lok Sabha polls and Rs 35 crore in 2011 assembly polls.
When asked about the accountability of these volunteers, Lakhoni said to ensure that traders and law abiding citizens are not affected, only designated flying squads will react on the intimation received and take a final call after verifying the tip off.
“It is the youngsters and volunteers who are exposing illegalities through social media helping us and not the politicos. In most of the cases, the political party functionaries are seen hyper active charging the election commission,” said a state officer on poll duty. So far there is no major tip off from political parties except targeting the EC. The Karur and the Egmore cash seizures running in to crores had been achieved only due to the execution of income tax and officers on poll duty, he said.
