New Delhi, April 5 (IANS) A total of Rs 319 crore worth cash, liquor and other freebies have been seized by election flying squads and enforcement agencies in West Bengal till Sunday, an official said.
Among the five poll-bound States/UTs, Bengal tops the table for recovery of freebies (Rs 150 crore), liquor (Rs 55 crore), precious metal (Rs 39 crore) and cash (Rs 11 crore) which were allegedly being used for inducement of electors.
Drugs valued at Rs 65 crore have been recovered from the state by law enforcers in the run-up to the two-phase elections on April 23 and 29, said the ECI statement.
Out of the 29.63 lakh litres of liquor seized by poll official in all five states/UTs, West Bengal accounts for the maximum of 21.29 lakh litres, said the ECI.
In Assam, the ECI said flying squads and surveillance teams have seized Rs 4 crore cash in the state in the runup to the election.
Apart from cash, 6,84,627 litres of liquor, worth Rs 20 crore, has also been confiscated in Assam.
The ECI said that drugs worth Rs 56 crore, precious metals worth Rs 4 crore and other freebies valued at Rs 13 crore have been seized in Assam till April 5.
The total value of freebies and contraband recovered in Assam so far is Rs 97 crore, said the ECI.
In Tamil Nadu, the total seizures have been worth Rs 170. This included Rs 67 crore seizure of drugs, Rs 63 crore worth other freebies, Rs 30 crore cash, Rs 8 crore precious metal and Rs 2 crore liquor.
In Kerala, the ECI has recovered a total of Rs 58 crore worth inducement items. This includes Rs 41 crore worth drugs, Rs 8 crore cash, Rs 5 crore worth other freebies, Rs 2 worth liquor and Rs 1 crore worth precious metal.
In Puducherry, the recovery is worth Rs 7 crore, including Rs 6 crore precious metal, Rs 20 lakh cash, Rs 30 lakh liquor and other freebies worth Rs 1 lakh.
In all, the enforcement agencies have seized illegal cash, liquor, drugs, precious metals and freebies worth more than Rs 651.5 crore from all the five election-bound states.
To ensure violence-free, intimidation-free and inducement- free elections, the ECI has deployed 5,173 flying squads across the States/UT to ensure that the complaints are attended to within 100 minutes.
Besides this, over 5,200 Static Surveillance Teams (SSTs) have also been deployed for setting up surprise pickets at different locations, the ECI said.
–IANS
rch/pgh
