Kochi: To ensure that blackmoney was not being used during the coming Assembly polls to influence voters in Kerala, the Income Tax department will be putting in place a 24 hour monitoring mechanism in all the 14 districts till the election process was over.
`During the course of election lot of black money is in circulation to influence voters. So the Income tax department would be coordinating with the Election commission and keep a vigilant eye on all black money in the state`, Anjani Kumar, Director General of Income Tax (Investigation) Patna, who is also the nodal officer of the polls in West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, and ET Lukose, Director General of IT (Investigation) Kochi, told a joint press meet here.
`If there is cash which is likely to be used to influence voters, we will seize it, if it is not properly explained. If money is used in an illegal manner to influence voters, we will act`, Kumar said.
In all the 14 districts, a deputy director of SP rank and 4 to 5 inspectors would be appointed to monitor if blackmoney was being used in the elections, they said. Flying squads would be appointed in every constituency.
A close watch would also be kept to see if functions like marriage anniversaries and birthday bashes are being used to canvas votes by candidates, he said adding transactions of religious organisations, having political connections, would
also be monitored.
Every candidate will have to open a bank account and all his expenses shall be incurred only through that account. IF there is any expenditure from any other source, the candidate can be disqualified, kumar said.
Airports, Railway stations, Hotels, Pawn brokers and Moneylenders would also be monitored.
The experiment was successfully conducted during the Bihar elections in November, Kumar said and a similar mechanism would be in place in states going to the polls and would become a permanent feature in all the elections.
PTI
