Crackdown on Election Code Violators in Tirupati District

Tirupati: Ahead of the general elections, the Tirupati district administration has started cracking the whip on those violating the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) and simultaneously resolving the cases of seized cash and handing over to the general public and traders.

In a statement issued on Sunday, district election officer (DEO) and Collector, Pravin Kumar, said that the District Grievance Committee set up for the purpose had reviewed 23 cases of cash seizures belonging to the public and traders, and Rs 35.58 lakh out of Rs 42.68 lakh was returned to the respective owners till Sunday.

Furthermore, the Collector said that the complaints regarding poll code violations received through various portals were addressed promptly. According to reports received till noon on April 14 (Sunday), altogether 253 complaints published in the print media were taken into consideration, out of which 251 cases were resolved. At least 47 complaints were registered on the complaint monitoring App as well as on the state Chief Electoral Officer’s website, were resolved.

The district had received 600 complaints through the C-Vigil App so far, of which 457 grievances were solved. On the other, 143 complaints were marked as “unfounded”. Besides, 659 out of 676 complaints registered on the National Grievance Services portal were redressed.

Kumar further said that the enforcement teams had seized `3.38 crore cash, 4,713 litres of liquor valued at `22.58 lakh, and other items across the district since coming into force the poll code.

Altogether 30,861 unauthorized advertisements on government and private property were removed so far in the district. At least 23 volunteers violating the election code were removed and seven regular employees were suspended, said the Collector.

“The disciplinary action was recommended against an employee and FIR was registered against another staffer. Seven contractual staffers were terminated,” the Collector said, adding that the stringent action will follow soon against those violating the poll code in Tirupati district as the Lok Sabha election inches closer.