Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Kumar on Wednesday said the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) was under the scanner as there were complaints of diversion of workers to public meetings of political parties.
At a press conference here, the CEO said the Returning Officer of each constituency had been asked to keep a watch on the work under the scheme. "We have asked them to inspect if those on the muster rolls are indeed working on the field. We have complaints that the wage is being used as incentive to divert them to public meetings."
Mr. Kumar said the Election Commission would now focus more on cash distribution. Zonal officers, who would have three to four security guards under their command, would keep a watch on money distribution. "Each zone has 10 booths. There are a total of 5,360 booths in the State."
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For the first time, the Election Commission would send text messages to voters on polling day and the day before, urging them to exercise their franchise.
Hawala transactions On the statement of Enforcement Department officials that Chennai was a hub of election-related hawala transactions, Mr. Kumar said no intelligence input had been received.
The only case of cash hoarding took place in Tirunelveli, where a town panchayat president had complained that a large amount of cash was stolen from him. "When we enquired, he was not able to explain where the original amount of Rs. 1 crore came from," the CEO said.
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