Lucknow: Chief Electoral Officer of the state, Navdeep Rinwa said that with the announcement of the election dates of Lok Sabha General Election-2024 by the Election Commission of India on March 16, 2024, there is a need to conduct free, fair, peaceful, fear-free, inducement-free, inclusive and safe voting in the state. Model code of conduct came into force in the entire state.
The Chief Electoral Officer said that to ensure compliance with the Model Code of Conduct, a total of 29,65,431 publicity materials have been removed from public and private places so far. In this, 18,15,006 promotional materials were removed from public places and 11,50,425 promotional materials were removed from private places. During this period, action was taken in 1,99,317 cases of wallwriting, 8,38,468 of posters, 5,32,581 of banners and 2,44,640 other cases from public places. Similarly, action was taken in 1,40,830 cases of wallwriting, 5,31,290 of posters, 3,17,955 of banners and 1,60,350 other cases in private places. Similarly, till now action has been taken in 219 cases of misuse of beacon lights and flags in vehicles and 550 cases of violation of the Loudspeaker Act. 08 FIRs were registered in connection with holding meetings and speeches without permission, distributing cash to woo voters and other matters.
The Chief Electoral Officer said that action is being taken by Police, Income Tax, Excise, Narcotics and other departments in effective compliance of the Model Code of Conduct. For intensive checking, 508 inter-state check posts and 1746 check posts have been operated within the state. Till March 22, 3,21,283 licensed weapons were deposited by the police department. Apart from this, 287 licensed weapons of criminal persons were seized. 3,501 licensed weapons were canceled and deposited. Similarly, 8,15,834 people were banned by taking preventive action under CrPC. Apart from this, 1,524 unlicensed illegal weapons, 1547 cartridges, 06 kg explosives and 87 bombs were recovered and seized by the police department. Police raided 257 centers manufacturing illegal weapons and 44 centers were seized. The Chief Electoral Officer said that liquor, drugs, precious metals, free gifts and cash etc. worth Rs 7,418.12 lakh were seized by the Excise, Income Tax, Police and Narcotics Department and other agencies from March 1 to March 22.
On March 22, 3210 grams of precious metal with an estimated value of Rs 211 lakh was seized in Ghaziabad assembly constituency of Ghaziabad district and Rs 41.64 lakh in cash was seized. Cash worth Rs 14.50 lakh was seized in Sirsaganj assembly constituency of Firozabad district. At the state level, 1904 flying squads and 732 teams of district-wise enforcement agencies are active for 24-hour surveillance. 317 static surveillance teams were deployed for the first phase of voting.
