Corpn intensifies vigil against cash, liquor movement

“As the polling day is nearing, meeting to intensify vigil against cash movement and liquor movement was conducted along with police, Tasmac officials and returning officers of 16 assembly constituencies,” Chennai Corporation Commissioner and district election officer G Prakash said. 

He added that zonal officials and regional deputy commissioners would also monitor the cash movement as some of the returning officers are not familiar with the geography of the city. Already, 144 flying squad teams and 48 static surveillance teams are in place to check suspicious vehicles. 

“Apart from monitoring movement of cash and gift items, teams have been formed to monitor movement liquor. All the Tasmac wine shops in the city are being monitored using CCTV to track bulk buyers. We have analyzed the sale of liquor to know whether the sale is higher during election time than the normal times. But, the sale has dipped during the election season,” Prakash said. 

As on Monday, the teams formed to prevent illegal liquor movement had seized 1,000 litres of liquor with in the city limits. On the other hand, 2,000 litres of liquor has been seized in the Chennai police limit. 

While explaining the measures taken to monitor paid news and political advertisements in newspapers and TV channels, Prakash admitted that monitoring advertisements in social media is challenging. The cost of advertisements will be added to the expenditures of candidates. 

Meanwhile, the district election office had seized around Rs 20 crore across the city, which was transported without valid documents as of Sunday. Of the Rs 20 crore, Rs 7.77 crore was seized in Harbour constituency. As much as Rs 5.31 crore was seized in the Anna Nagar constituency. 

Apart from this, the office had already instructed the banks in the city to report transactions of more than Rs 10 lakh. Transactions of more than Rs 1 lakh will be reported to the Income Tax department.