Hyderabad: Telangana state is on the Election Commission’s radar for potential abuse of money in elections. This is because in the 2014 general election, out of the total Rs 300 crore seized by officials across the country, more than Rs 150 crore were seized from undivided Andhra Pradesh. The Telangana region contributed 70 per cent of this amount. The EC has alerted I-T officials to closely monitor financial activities in the real estate sector, hawala operators and bullion traders in TS and the other poll-bound states, where black money can be inserted into the system for election activities.
Chief electoral officer Rajat Kumar on Sunday said the EC with the help of Income Tax Department will monitor high-value transactions in banks in poll-bound Telangana. The exercise will continue till the model code of conduct is in force in the state. A high-level team from the EC which recently visited the state had held discussions with the office of the principal chief commissioner of Income Tax of Telangana on monitoring bank transactions.
“The I-T department has been sensitised on the need to monitor these transactions. We are keeping a watch on that. Currently it is being tracked through the Income Tax Department. If there are violations or if need be, we will collect the data from the banks,” Mr Kumar said. Chief electoral officer Rajat Kumar also said the EC has issued notices to 122 candidates of various political parties who had contested in the previous elections and have yet to submit their election expenditure.
Speaking to the media recently, chief election commissioner O.P. Rawat said, “The abuse of money in elections continues to be a major challenge in all the poll-going states. But we suspect the use of money power will be high in Telangana.” He said the ECI's cVIGIL mobile app, launched in July, will help to check this menace. This Android app will be functional from the day the model code of conduct is enforced. It will allow vigilant citizens to upload photos or videos of election-related violations.
