NEW DELHI: With less than a month left for the civic polls to be held in the city, the State Election Commission (SEC) prepping for the exercise issued an order hiking the cap on the expenditure that can be incurred by a candidate on the campaign to Rs 8 lakh from Rs 5.75 lakh.
Municipal corporations elections — south, north and east — are due in April. Polling will be conducted for the 272 municipal wards across the three corporations at over 13,000 booths. While the south and north corporations comprise 104 wards each, the east civic body has only 64 wards.
S K Srivastava, SEC, Delhi issued an order thereby fixing the maximum limit of the expenditure to be incurred by a candidate during the election campaign to Rs 8 lakh. Officials said that in the 2017 civic polls, the maximum expenditure limit was Rs 5.75 lakh. “In 2012, the maximum limit was Rs 5 lakh while in 2004 it was Rs 4 lakh,” said a senior official.
A former North Corporation councillor said that an increased limit will keep the exercise more “transparent”, as the cap on expenditure has to be “realistic” and Rs 8 lakh is a decent amount.“Previously, the expenditure limits used to be unrealistic, often forcing candidates to make up bills to fit into the cap while they were actually much above it. It is a good decision that the limit has been hiked,” said the former councillor.
East Delhi councillor said that from time to time, the expenditure limit should to be revised just as in the case of other expenditures.