Over Rs 64 crore in cash, including Rs 56.04 crore from Uttar Pradesh alone, and liquor and drugs worth over Rs 8 crore recovered from the five poll-bound states by the Election Commission-appointed surveillance and expenditure monitoring teams.
According to the official data out of Rs 64 crore cash major shared recovered in UP followed by Punjab at Rs 8.17 crore, third in the list is Uttarakhand with Rs 10 lakhs and Manipur Rs 6.95 lakhs.
On the other hand, Punjab tops the chart in number of drug seizure by the team with the highest of Rs 1.78 crore recovered in the state including heroine and poppy, followed by Goa at 16.72 lakh and Manipur amounted to Rs 7 lakh.
Also, 1.98 lakh litres liquor valued at Rs 6.06 crore has been seized in Uttar Pradesh while 10,646 litres of booze has been seized in Punjab worth at Rs 17.54 lakh for illegal appeasement used for bribing voters during elections.
Officials said a total of “Rs 64.38 crore in cash, Rs 6.23 crore of liquor and over Rs two crore worth narcotics have been seized in the five poll-bound states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur, till data recorded upto January 17.”
As per the latest information Goa and Uttarakhand are the only two states where no illicit liquor or cash has been found. Also, no illicit liquor and drug seizures case happened in Manipur and Uttar Pradesh respectively.
In the wake of upcoming elections, to keep a tab on floating of black money , election commission has appointed about 200 election expenditure observers and some central observers.
The counting in all the fives states will take place on March 11 and Assembly elections in UP, Punjab, Goa, Uttarakhand and Manipur will be held between February 4 and March 8.
