In exercise of the powers conferred on it under Article 324 of the Constitution and Section 20B of The Representation of the People Act 1951, the Election Commission of India today appointed two ex-Indian Revenue Service officers – Ms Madhu Mahajan (ex IRS 1982) and Shri B Murali Kumar (ex IRS 1983) as Special Expenditure Observers for the forthcoming Elections to the Legislative Assembly of Maharashtra.

Ms Mahajan would be required to watch the conduct of Elections with special emphasis on controlling the abuse of money power, in consultation with the Chief Electoral Officer at Mumbai. Sh Murali Kumar would similarly be based at Pune to look into matters in rest of the State with officers and Election Authorities as deemed necessary.

The Special Observers will be supervising and monitoring the work being done by the electoral machinery and ensure that stringent and effective enforcement action is undertaken based on intelligence inputs and complaints received through C-VIGIL, Voter Helpline 1950 against all persons/entities  trying to induce voters by distributing cash, liquor & freebies etc.  in order to vitiate the poll process.

It may be recalled that given her past experience in Investigations Wing of Income Tax Department, Ms Mahajan was appointed Special Expenditure Observer for Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in recent Lok Sabha elections. Sh B Murali Kumar was also appointed Special Expenditure Observer for 8-Vellore Parliamentary Constituency during Lok Sabha Elections and had served as DGIT (Inv.), Chennai earlier.

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SBS

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