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The matka gambling network, which operates across Goa on an estimated daily turnover of Rs 10 crore, is another source of illegal funding of election campaign activity that Goa's election machinery wants to curb2)
The two district police setups have been instructed to prepare an action plan to curb the illegal activity during the election process much in the coordinated way it was done during the 2017 Assembly elections in Goa-------------------------------------------------------------------
PANAJI: Gearing up for the upcoming General Election for the two Lok Sabha seats here in Goa, Chief Electoral Officer Kunal (IAS) met with top State administration and police officials and drew up a tentative plan to effectively check drugs and matka gambling trade suspected to be a source of illegal funding of elections in the State.
Sources said, the CEO issued instructions that weekly reports on all issues related to law and order be dispatched to his office. These police reports are to be dispatched on a daily basis once the Model Code of Conduct comes into force, sources said.
The meeting which was held on Monday was attended by South Goa Collector, Agnelo Fernandes, who will also be the returning officer for the South Goa seat. His North Goa counterpart, Levinson Martins, however, could not attend due to other engagements but his office was represented by the Additional Collector Gopal Parsekar.
Superintendent of Police (Headquarters), Bossuet D'Silva who heads the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up to tackle the illegal matka gambling operations in the State was part of the deliberations. Also providing crucial inputs, particularly relating to the plan to tackle the narco-trade which is suspected to be a source of illegal funding of elections, was Bhanu Pratap who heads the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in Goa.
Additional Chief Electoral Officer, Narayan Sawant, South Goa Additional Collector Surendra Naik, Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Sangeeta Naik and Deputy Collector (Elections) Tushar Halarnkar were the other senior officials privy to the discussions.
One measure that is likely to be implemented during the election is to obtain 'good behaviour' bonds under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) from all individuals facing charges under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
The plan involves raising by several notches the co-ordination between the NCB and the Goa Police's Anti Narcotics Branch (ANC) to create a database of all those booked under the NDPS Act over the last five years.
A control room will be set up by the NCB to handle all narcotic drugs related matters during the entire election period.
The matka-gambling network, which operates across the state on an estimated daily turnover of Rs 10-crore, is another source of illegal funding of election campaign activity that Goa's election machinery wants to curb.
Kunal has issued instructions that the two district police setups prepare an action plan to curb the illegal activity during the election process much in the co-ordinated way it was done during the 2017 Assembly elections in Goa.
Kunal also broached the subject of capping expenditure by the election machinery. Goa's poll officials were accused of spending lavishly during the 2017 Assembly elections. The spend on the election machinery exceeded the budgeted figure of Rs 40 crores by almost 50 per-cent and an inquriy ordered by Kunal did not come up with much.
