CHENNAI: The Election Commission has deployed Flying Surveillance Teams (FST) and Static Surveillance Teams (SST) to monitor movement of cash and prevent distribution of cash for votes as the State is electing a new government on April 6. However, the functioning of the teams had largely not been brought under scrutiny. A recent incident of Coimbatore Collector suspending a revenue official and two police personnel attached to an FST last week has brought the issue to the limelight. It was stated that the three persons had not reported to duty as per schedule. It is said that officials take advantage of the lack of a monitoring system.
Spot visits by Express revealed rampant malpractice in the functioning of the FSTs. Particularly, in a few constituencies in Chennai and Chengalpattu districts, heads of FSTs have not reported to duty for several days and also used proxies. “The head of an FST in RK Nagar had been relieved from duty after he went on leave without information. It took EC officials several days to find out that the officer deployed for the post had not been working. Upon being found, he was relieved from the post,” said a source.
The state of affairs is no better in Chengalpattu and other neighbouring districts. “In Tambaram, the head of an FST team had not reported to duty for several days. However, his team was sending seizure inputs regularly. It is suspected that the revenue official used forged letter to let his proxy work in the FST in his absence,” said a police official.
Following the complaints, Chennai District Electoral Officer G Prakash recently issued notices to select heads of FSTs in 16 constituencies seeking explanation for their poor performance and uninformed absence during working days.
The malpractice in the functioning of FSTs is mainly attributed to lack of a monitoring system. “All the FST vehicles are fitted with location tracking GPS devices and are being monitored directly by a special EC team. Unless a violation is flagged, there is no system to check the teams, given that ROs (Returning Officers) and DEOs (District Electoral Officers) are overburdened with too many responsibilities for elections,” sources said.
The absence of a monitoring system and the officials taking advantage of it are blamed for the low amount of seizure of unaccounted cash and valuables from political parties. “A large chunk of money and gold jewels seized by Election Commission (EC) were from traders and public. The EC should find ways to enhance efficiency,” said an independent candidate from RK Nagar.
In the meantime, as the election date is nearing, the EC has increased the number of FSTs and SSTs in 105 constituencies where Income Tax Department found suspicious movement of money. The EC has also tightened vigil to curb cash movement in select pockets. When contacted, EC officials said complaints on malpractice of FSTs would be looked into.