Agartala: National Election Watch (NEW) and Association for Democratic Reform (ADR) – working for electoral and political reform in India has lodged a complaint with Election Commission (EC) over incorrect statement of expenditure submitted by the MPs and parties in just concluded Lok Sabha election.
One of the executive of NEW & ADR Prof Trilochan Sastry in a letter today to Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath alleged that there was a discrepancy in the election expenditure statement of the elected members of Lok Sabha and their respective parties.
“Out of 277 MPs from national parties, 75 declared about a sum of Rs 7.46 crore were received from their parties but the parties have declared Rs 14.19 Cr was given to 138 MPs. While comparing the expenses of candidates against their parties’ expenses, it was observed the amounts declared by the candidates did not match with the declarations of their parties,” Prof Sastry pointed out.
Demanding action into the discrepancy of financial statement the organisations recommended a detail corrective measure to ensure transparency in the financial functioning of the political parties.
He, however, rued that in analysing the expenditure statements of political parties during 2009 Lok Sabha, has found various instances where the parties have not followed the pro-forma suggested by the EC. Moreover, only 36 of the 41 recognised parties had submitted their expenditure statements for 2009 elections.
A total of 15 MPs from 12 regional parties and belonging to nine different states have mentioned various amounts as received from their respective parties which do not match with the affidavits submitted by the parties.
To ensure full transparency in election, he demanded uploading of election expenditure statements of candidates within 72 hours by all CEOs, he said adding that the format for election expense statements should include mode of payment for donations made by party to the candidate including date, cheque/DD number and detail of the sources. (UNI)
