April 28, 2011 8:19 PM

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Black money flow into assembly polls: EC promises severe action

The Election Commission on Thursday said that it is alive to the problem of black money flowing into assembly elections in West Bengal and promised to take severe action against the culprits. Briefing the media, after meeting the top state officials in Kolkata, the Chief Election Commissioner Mr. S.Y. Qureshi said that so far over seven and a half crore rupees have been seized in the first three phases of elections. He said, though the commission's main focus is to ensure that candidates and political parties should strict to expenditure ceiling, but cases of huge money transactions are being referred to Central Board of Direct Taxes and Financial intelligence units for proper investigation and action. In reply to a question on the alleged unaccounted money deducted in Trinamool's account Mr. Qureshi said, explanation has already been sought from the party and RBI was also urged to submit a report in this regard. On the issue of objectionable language used during campaign, he said such incidents are unfortunate and Election Commission has taken cognizance of it. Mr. Qureshi said Election Commission also appealed to all the political parties during a meeting in the afternoon to resort to healthy campaign. Dwelling on the issue of poll preparedness for the remaining three phases, the Chief Election Commissioner said force availability will be more intensive as Maoist infested districts of West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia are going to polls in these phases. Mr. Qureshi informed that as a special measure, central forces will stay for 10 more days even after the counting of the votes.

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