Malda, March 18 -- The Election Commission of India (ECI) has identified 4 Assembly constituencies of Malda district sensitive regarding expenditure during polls. The Central investigating agencies will monitor these Assembly segments under South Malda Lok Sabha constituency during the election. Nitin Singhania, District Magistrate Malda, during a press conference at the district administrative building said this after the declaration of the poll dates by the ECI. The four constituencies are English Bazar, Sujapur, Mothabari and Farakka in Murshidabad district.
Such guidelines are so far unprecedented in the district as well as in the state. In a first, the Central investigation agencies, including Income Tax (IT), Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials are going to monitor these four Assembly constituencies of South Malda regarding black money flow during Lok Sabha elections.
Among the 4 Assembly constituencies mentioned, English Bazar and Sujapur are adjacent to the India-Bangladesh International border whereas the remaining two Mothabari and Farakka are bordering Jharkhand state. In the last few days, the state law enforcement agencies have conducted various operations and have recovered cattle, fake Indian currency notes (FICN), illegal arms and contrabands, including yaba tablets, heroin, brown sugar, phensedyl from the district. Several miscreants have also been arrested for their involvement in such crimes. Keeping this in view, the ECI has taken measures to conduct strict surveillance in these places. Singhania said: "Four Assembly constituencies have been identified as expenditure sensitive by ECI on the basis of previous records. As per the instructions of the Election Commission of India, we shall take various steps to suppress any type of crime and conduct the polls in a fair and orderly manner." Meanwhile, 7 companies of Central Forces have reached Malda. 64 flying squad, 42 video surveillance and 82 static surveillance teams have started working for smooth implementation of Model Code of Conduct (MCC).
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.