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Ceiling on poll expenditure raised

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI OCT. 21. The Central Government today took a series of decisions on the conduct of elections to Parliament and the Legislative Assemblies, including the raising of election expenditure and carrying out the delimitation exercise on the basis of the 2001 census.

The Union Cabinet, which met here today, decided to raise the ceiling on election expenditure for the Lok Sabha to Rs. 25 lakhs against the present Rs. 15 lakhs per constituency. In the case of Assembly constituencies, the limit is Rs. 10 lakhs per constituency with adjustments in the case of smaller States. The new limits will shortly be notified.

The Union Minister for Health and Parliamentary Affairs, Sushma Swaraj, told the media that the new ceiling would be applicable to the coming Assembly elections. For Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the ceiling will be Rs.10 lakhs per constituency. In the case of Delhi, it is Rs. 9 lakhs (limit so far Rs.5 lakhs) and for Mizoram to Rs.5 lakhs (Rs.3 lakhs).

The last revision of the expenditure ceiling was in 1997 and the Election Commission at its meeting in July this year suggested that the limit be raised since the value of the rupee had declined considerably and the price index had gone up. In the case of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, the State Government would do this by amending the relevant part of the J & K Assembly Election Rules.

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