EC’s Close watch on polling states as it appoints Special Expenditure Observers for six States

New Delhi, March 27: To spearhead Election commission’s efforts to check the abuse of black money and illegal inducements to voters it has considered, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Nagaland and Telangana for the appointment of Special Expenditure Observers for six States in view of the forthcoming elections.

Four special observers include two retired IRS and two IPS officer, and monitor deployment of security forces in select sensitive states during the Lok Sabha polls.

The poll-body appointed Gopal Mukherjee as special expenditure observer for the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and D D Goel for Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.

Mukherjee, a 1980-batch officer of the Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax) retired as Member (Investigations) in the Central Board of Direct Taxes, while Goel, a 1982-batch officer of the same service, superannuated as Director General of I-T (Investigations).

The Election Commission also appointed former BSF chief and retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer K K Sharma as the special central police observer for the states of West Bengal and Jharkhand.

Mrinal Kanti Das, a 1977-batch IPS officer of Manipur-Tripura cadre, has been assigned as police observer for the states of Tripura and Mizoram.

"The special observers will be supervising and monitoring the work being done by the electoral machinery and ensure that stringent and effective enforcement action is undertaken based on intelligence inputs and complaints received through C-Vigil app and voter helpline-1950- against all persons/entities trying to induce voters by distributing cash, liquor and freebies among others in order to vitiate the poll process," it said in a statement.

The Election Commission added that former BSF Director General (DG) Sharma "would oversee the deployment and other security-related issues" in the two states assigned to him.