SIVAGANGA: The district administration has issued show-cause notices to 600 panchayat union ward members and panchayat presidents, elected during 2019-20 polls, for failing to submit their election expenses.
State Election Commission conducted the rural local body elections to fill 1,400 posts in 2019-20 in the district. The candidates who won the election had to submit the details of their expenses to the district administration within one month from the date of declaring the results.
The maximum permitted amount for spending for the post of the union ward member is `85,000, and for president it is Rs 34,000. Those contesting for village panchayat ward member posts are allowed to spend Rs 9,000. However, sources said the commission has not shown much interest in getting the election expense details from village panchayat ward members. "Meanwhile, all the district panchayat ward members submitted the details of their expenses without delay in 2020 itself," they said.
A senior official of the district administration said the show-cause notice was issued as per the directive of Collector P Madhusudhan Reddy and that the representatives have been asked to respond to it without further delay.
He said action would be taken if a representative is found to have spent more money than the permissible limit. "If found guilty, the State Election Commission could debar the candidate from contesting for three years. However, in reality, those who are found guilty would not have to undergo much trouble as, according to the rules, debbaring should be effected for three years from the date of election election (2019). That is, if they are proven guilty, they would be debarred to contest from 2019 until Jan 2022," he added.