Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 7: Chief Electoral Officer J&K, Umang Narula today inaugurated Expenditure Monitoring Centre at PWD Guest House, Gandhi Nagar.
The centre has been established by the District Election Officer for monitoring of expenditure incurred by various candidates and political parties during ongoing Assembly elections for 11-Assembly Constituencies of district Jammu.
CEO informed that more than 100 officers/officials have been posted in the centre which includes Assistant Expenditure Observers, Accounting teams, Video Viewing Teams, MCMC Team and Expenditure Monitoring Cell under the supervision of Additional District Development Commissioner (ADDC) Jammu, G.A. Balwan who has been appointed as Nodal Officer for expenditure monitoring.
There are three expenditure observers deployed by Election Commission of India for keeping an eye exclusively on the expenditure who will also be visiting the centre regularly for examining and checking accounts of the candidates.
It is pertinent to mention that all type of expenditure related information coming from various sources are sent to the Expenditure Monitoring Cell and the Expenditure Monitoring Teams to calculate the expenditure as per the rates fixed by the District Election Officer and prepare a shadow register of the candidates. The candidate has also mandatorily prepare its own expenditure register which he has to produce before the monitoring team regularly which are being taken by the accounting teams and notices are issued if any discrepancy is found.
He further informed that 11 teams for every Assembly Constituencies have been placed which are equipped with viewing videos recorded from the field and computer for calculation and accounting of each and every candidate without any delay. 4 TV sets have been placed for watching each and every channel including local channels by the MCMC team and keep a cheque on various advertisements by the political parties and candidates who are further recorded for evidence purposes.
Sufficient radio sets have also been placed with recording facility to keep a watch on all radio channels broadcasting political advertisements. All the newspapers published in various languages i.e Hindi, Urdu, Dogri and English are also scanned by the MCMC team for keeping an eye on the political advertisement and expenditure incurred by the candidates. They have also be provided facilities for monitoring of Facebook, Whatsapp, SMS and other internet related media violations, if any.
CEO said that any expenditure related complaint can also be logged on toll free number 1800-180-7082 which are further sent to the flying squads for verification and details thereof in the Election Monitoring Cell.
CEO also released various promotional awareness posters and pamphlets and designs of hoardings to be used in “Wake Up Jammu Campaign” launched by the District Election Officer Jammu under SVEEP programme of Election Commission of India.
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