EC appoints IRS veterans as spl expenditure observers for Maharashtra polls

The Election Commission on Monday appointed two senior former Indian Revenue Service officers as special expenditure observers in Maharashtra to prevent possible misuse of money power in the assembly elections. While Madhu Mahajan, a former IRS officer of the 1982 batch will be deployed in Mumbai, B Murli Kumar, another former IRS officer of the 1983 bath, will be posted at Pune, separate orders issued by the poll panel said. Addressing a press conference here on Saturday to announce assembly polls in Maharashtra and Haryana, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora had said that the two would be deployed as special expenditure officers in Maharashtra.

Both the states will go to polls on October 21 and counting will be taken up on October 24. Their main task would be to check possible misuse of money power in Maharashtra, the orders said.

Mahajan, given her past experience in investigations wing of the Income Tax Department, was appointed special expenditure observer for Tamil Nadu in this Lok Sabha election. Kumar was also appointed special expenditure observer for the Vellore parliamentary constituency in Tamil Nadu during the Lok Sabha elections. He has earlier served as DGIT (Investigation), Chennai.

The financial intelligence unit of the Income Tax Department will monitor banking channels in the two states during the election process. These will also include cooperative banks. The officials will check huge financial transactions to ensure money is not used to lure voters, the sources said.

For greater transparency and ease of monitoring of election expenses, candidates are required to open a separate bank account and incur their election expenses from that very account. An Election Commission statement on Saturday had said the Investigation Directorate of the Income Tax Department has been asked to activate air intelligence units in the airports of the two states and also to gather intelligence and take necessary action against movement of large sum of money there.

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