Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

Observer cracks the whip on candidates

V.S. Palaniappan

Asks officials to check vehicles parked inside Collectorate

WATCHFUL EYES: Police verifying the authorisations of the vehicles parked inside the Coimbatore Collectorate on Monday following a directive from the election observer. — Photo: K. Ananthan

Coimbatore: The election observer for Singanallur constituency, Rajendra Kumar Khataria, on Monday cracked the whip on candidates and political parties for flooding the Collectorate with vehicles.

After the deadline for withdrawal of nominations got over and even as the preparation of the final list of candidates in the fray was going on, the observer wanted to know from the officials "as to why so many cars with political party flags and posters were parked in the Collectorate premises."

The observer pointed out that there was a restriction on the number of vehicles per candidate and also on the practice of pasting permission letter (letter of authority issued by the respective returning officers) on the windshield of the cars. He directed the officials to check every vehicle to ascertain whether they had the required permission letter from the respective returning officers.

Creates flutter

Any vehicle plying or parked without letter of authority should be seized and should be accounted in the expenditure of the candidate or political party, he said. Then, the revenue officials started noting down the registration number of all the vehicles and also sought letter of authority creating a flutter in the Collectorate.

The Collectorate gate was partially closed and the police were asked to check every vehicle and insist on the letter of authority and in case of failure to produce the same, the vehicles be detained. The officials said that the observers had started taking an account of the number of vehicles being used by each candidate to bring it under the expenditure account of the respective candidate.

Sources also pointed out that the observers had asked for a video recording of the entourage of the Chief Minister when she campaigned in Coimbatore on Sunday. A detailed list of number of cars that formed part of the convoy (with classification of vehicles that belonged to security agencies, media, party), banners, posters, cutouts and placards used are being prepared based on the video-footage.

A similar exercise was on in respect of the other candidates and parties as well, liaison officers for the observers hinted.

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