2021 Chandigarh civic polls: Buses to honorarium for polling staff, many dues remain unpaid

All the above expenses continue to remain unpaid nine months after the polls concluded and despite the UT administration shelling out almost Rs 13 crore for the polls, the initial estimate for which ranged around Rs 8 crore.

Haryana State Election Commissioner Dhanpat Singh had earlier stated that the general elections of panchayati raj institutions will be held in a single phase across the state

An RTI filed by Chandigarh resident RK Garg has revealed that an expense of Rs 38 lakh for CTU buses that carried men and machine on the polling day last year, Rs 2.03 crore on tents, and Rs 31 lakh on just checking of EVMs used for the elections.

All the above expenses continue to remain unpaid nine months after the polls concluded and despite the UT administration shelling out almost Rs 13 crore for the polls, the initial estimate for which ranged around Rs 8 crore.

Details obtained under the RTI Act revealed that Rs 38,10,522 was incurred on the CTU buses that carried employees on election duty and the EVM machines, and another amount of Rs 2,03,86,301 was incurred only on tents used for the polls.

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Similarly, an amount of Rs 31,36,558 was spent on the checking — first level checking — of EVM machines, that was carried out by a firm M/s ECIL.

Likewise, a sum of Rs 6,23,276 was spent only on the use of taxis hired for the polls for which an agency by the name M/S Mavi Tours and Travels was engaged. The company submitted 47 bills for the same.

An amount of Rs 14,84,500 was to be spent on the honorarium for the staff on election duty and an amount of Rs 12,97,166 was incurred on the videography of the polls, which was done by one M/s Sharma videos was hired.

Amount spent nearly doubled

The expenditure incurred for UT civic polls in the year 2019 was Rs 6.15 crore, when the number of polling booths were 500.

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The reply also stated that in 2014, Rs 3,88,38,893 was incurred for the Lok Sabha polls in UT. This amount covered printing of voter slips to advertisement, from fuel used by officials to telephone expenses.

Hina Rohtaki

Hina Rohtaki is a Special Correspondent with The Indian Express, Chandigarh. She covers Chandigarh administration and other cross beats. In this field for over a decade now, she has also received the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award by the President of India in January 2020. She tweets @HinaRohtaki ... Read More

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