Election Commission to crackdown on black money use in forthcoming polls

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission will crackdown heavily on use of blackmoney during the upcoming assembly polls in five states and has put in place stronger measures to monitor illegal cash movement, Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi said here.

"The EC will come down heavily against blackmoney during the forthcoming polls," Quraishi said after inaugurating a day-long workshop for political parties on election expenditure monitoring here yesterday.

He said the Election Commission (EC) has put stronger measures to monitor illegal cash movement and funds during polls after learning from the experiences of last year assembly polls in Bihar and few other states like Tamil Nadu and West Bengal recently.

The CEC said that political parties should educate their cadres at all levels regarding the guidelines framed by the EC in this regard so that violations are "minimised".

A total of 58 representatives of both national and state- level political parties from Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur participated in the workshop.

He said political parties should exercise self restraint on election expenditure and strictly adhere to the new set of instructions issued by the EC in this regard recently.

Quraishi, who was was accompanied by two other Election Commissioners V S Sampath and H S Brahma, said during the all-party meeting held at its headquarters in October last year, party leaders had themselves asked Commission to check use of excess money and menace of paid news in elections.