Chennai, Apr, 20 (PTI) Tamil Nadu CEO Archana Patnaik on Monday said that the surveillance teams have so far seized cash, gold and silver articles, gift materials, liquor and drugs, worth over 1,200 crore
across the state, where Assembly elections are scheduled on April 23.
As on April 20, a total of Rs 169.85 crore in cash was seized from various places in the state, she said in a statement.
Stating that the surveillance teams deployed in all the assembly constituencies are actively engaged in 24×7 monitoring, the Chief Electoral Officer said precious metals, including gold and silver articles worth Rs 650.87 crore were seized by the authorities.
Similarly, gift articles and freebies worth Rs 306.34 were seized, besides confiscating drugs and narcotics worth Rs 82.73 crore. At the same time, liquor worth Rs 2.95 crore was seized. In total, Rs 1,212.74 crore was seized.
The CEO said of the total seized amount, around Rs 495 crore has been released on submission of the valid documents, without causing any inconvenience or harassment to the public.
Patnaik also pointed out that for the April 23 Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, the Election Commission of India has deployed 136 general observers, 40 police observers, and 150 expenditure observers for the 234 Assembly Constituencies in the state. Likewise, a total of 83,875 police personnel and 40,427 non-police personnel have been allotted.
The CEO further said that the dry days have been announced in Tamil Nadu and also in the border areas in the neighbouring states and UT from April 21 to April 23 and also the day of counting on May 4. PTI SNR SNR KH
