BHUBANESWAR: Ahead of the simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Odisha, Nikunja Bihari Dhal on Saturday asked all district nodal officers to keep a close eye on the poll expenses of candidates to ensure it does not exceed the prescribed limit.
During a training programme of the district nodal officers on election expenditure monitoring for the ensuing general elections, Dhal asked them to discharge their responsibilities with full integrity and fearlessness. The nodal officers are responsible for preventing misuse of money power to ensure the elections are held in a free and fair manner, he said.
The CEO said all arrangements will be made at the district level to monitor expenditure concealment, misrepresentation of expenditure, paid news, etc and to take action as per rules. Officials said the election expenses of candidates will be closely monitored to ensure the spending does not exceed the prescribed limit of Rs 40 lakh in Assembly and Rs 95 lakh in Lok Sabha elections.
During the training programme held in two sessions the nodal officers were trained in detail on their roles, responsibilities, power, functions and the legal aspects of election expenditure monitoring.
Additional chief electoral officer N Tirumala Nayak and other senior officials imparted training to the nodal officers on the crucial aspects of poll expenditure monitoring.