New Delhi, Feb 17 (IANS): The Election Commission has said that it seized cash, narcotics, liquor, precious metals and freebies worth Rs 771.25 crore till February 14 during ongoing assembly elections in five states.
According to ECI officials, since the date of notification of Elections on January 8 till poll day of the second phase, a record seizure of Rs 224.71 crore has already been achieved in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Goa.
The seizure which includes cash, liquor, narcotics, freebies ect was more than the total combined seizure of Rs 203.78 crore in the entire general election to Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Goa legislative elections in 2017 in all phases.
The Poll panel said the officials engaged in the election duty in five states have seized cash, liquor, narcotics, precious metals and freebies of Rs 12.73 crore in Goa, of Rs 98.42 crore in Manipur, of Rs 448.12 crore in Punjab, of Rs 18.81 crore in Uttarakhand and of Rs 193.17 crore in Uttar Pradesh till February 14, 2022.
The EC officials said that in Goa, a total of Rs 6.66 crore cash, 95,446 litres of liquor worth of Rs 3.57 crore, 43.55 kg of narcotics of Rs 1.28 crore and Rs 1.20 crore of freebies were seized by the state election officials while Rs 1.5 crore cash, 39,893 litre of liquor worth Rs 51 lakh, 76 kg of narcotics worth Rs 82.15 crore, 15.83 kg of precious metal worth Rs 7.71 crore and Rs 6.55 crore of freebies were seized in Manipur.
Similarly in Punjab, Rs 30.43 crore cash, 49,58,081 litres of liquor worth Rs 29.89 crore, 4616.15 kg of drugs worth Rs 325.27 crore, 143.12 kg of precious metal costing Rs 59.68 crore and Rs 2.85 crore worth freebies were confiscated by the Commission officials.
In Uttar Pradesh, Rs 78.11 crore cash was seized along with 16,29,880 litres of liquor of Rs 44.32 crore, 13,958 kg of drugs of RS 38.05 crore, 303.75 kg of precious metal of Rs 30.91 crore and Rs 1.78 crore worth of freebies have been recovered during the campaign.
The Commission has been laying specific emphasis on inducement free elections and curbing the malaise of undue money power, liquor, freebies and 2400 Flying Squads (FS) and 2654 Static Surveillance Teams (SST) were operationalised to check movement of cash, liquor, drugs and freebies in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Goa.