EC puts LS affidavits on I-T scanner

Declaration of assets by candidates for the Lok Sabha elections was only half the story. Now, the Election Commission (EC) has sent the affi...

Declaration of assets by candidates for the Lok Sabha elections was only half the story. Now, the Election Commission (EC) has sent the affidavits to the Income Tax Department which will cross-check the details. This, apart from the accounts candidates have to submit for their poll spending, to be verified against the figures put up by expenditure observers.

‘‘We have put the affidavits declaring assets and liabilities (of candidates) together on CDs. It has been sent to the IT department for evaluation,’’ Deputy Election Commissioner and EC spokesperson A.N. Jha said.

The candidates have to submit their poll expenditure papers by July 13. The Returning Officers will match these with the reports filed by the expenditure observers. ‘‘Notices will be issued to candidates who do not file their returns by mid-July; they will be given adequate time to reply before the disqualification process is initiated,’’ Jha said, adding that any discrepancy in the expenditure reports will also be passed on to the I-T Department. The EC, he said, has also directed ROs to take appropriate action, including legal measures under 177 of IPC and 127 A of Representation of Peoples Act against candidates if false information has been furnished.

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Besides, the EC is giving final touches to its recommedations on electoral reforms to the government, including suggestions to keep ‘‘tainted people out of the electoral fray’’.

As part of the corrective measures taken to minimise errors in electoral rolls, the EC is preparing new rolls incorporating photographs of the voters. ‘‘It would tried in the urban centres before it percolates to the rural areas,’’ Jha said.

Mumbai, where largescale deletion was reported during the recent Lok Sabha elections, will be the trial case. And, for the first time, delivery post offices will be designated locations in Maharashtra — where Assembly elections are scheduled this year — where claims and objections on the electoral rolls can be submitted.