PANAJI
Seizures during the election season due to restrictions on movement with liquid cash above the Rs 50,000 limit imposed by the Model Code of Conduct, will be dealt with by a district-level committee headed by the respective district magistrates.
In South Goa, this committee has already been constituted by the District Magistrate, Ashwin Chandru, IAS, who is also the returning officer for the Mormugao (South Goa) Lok Sabha seat. The committee will also redress complaints related to such seizures.
According to the order issued by Chandru, he himself will head the committee as per the guidelines of the Election Commission of India. The other members on the committee are: Project Director of District Rural Development Authority, Deepali Naik, Director of Accounts in the Electricity Department, Walter M D'Melo and Deputy Director of Accounts Chetan C Dharangutty.
The committee will also meet as and when required during the election period and shall independently investigate every case of seizure of cash either by the Police, the Static Surveillance Team or Flying Squad. The committee will investigate all cases and decide on the confiscation.
ECI guidelines state that the procedure for appealing against the seizure shall be mentioned in the seizure document and communicated to the persons from whom the cash is being seized. Also, all the information relating to release of cash shall be maintained by the Nodal Officer for expenditure monitoring in a register, which shall be in order with details of the amount of cash withheld, seized and the date of release to the concerned person(s), the ECI guidelines state. It also stipulates that no cases relating to seized cash or valuables shall be kept pending in the treasury for more than seven days after the polling date.
The flying squads or the SST and police officers who effect a seizure are also mandated to bring it to the notice of the district-level committees immediately. If the amount of cash seized is more than Rs 10 lakh, the nodal officer of the Income Tax Department will be passed on the information before any release of the cash is made.
