Imphal: The 2022 Manipur Assembly election is historic not just for its sheer size, but it’s historic also for the worth and quantity of cash, drugs, liquor and freebies seized by vigilance authorities during these elections.
As on 17 February, cash, drugs/narcotics, liquor, precious metal (gold, silver etc) and freebies worth Rs 100,000,20 crore (1.02 crore) was seized across the state. Much of this came from the seizure of drugs/poppy and 1.475 crore of cash (by Income Tax).
In drugs/narcotics which include: Opium- 68.62 kg; Brown sugar-4.63056 kg; Poppy destruction- 1325 acres (13250 kg yield opium); Processed poppy seeds- 25 bags (1370 kg); Heroin-2.711 kg; SP Capsule-22 Nos; N10-6 Nos; WY Tab.-280089 Nos; other tablets-525; Methamphetamine-0.045 kg and cough syrup-5910 bottles worth Rs 84.699 crore have been seized.
Gold-17320.58 gms worth some Rs 8.44 crore are in custody.
Freebies and other materials that include: Cigarette sticks- 3410600; Raw areca nuts- 4160 kg; Footwear-1125 pairs; Plastic toys-1977 pcs; Electric kettle-100 pcs; Carpentry material – 1 package; Cosmetics-2747 pcs; Radios-6 sets; Disc player-3 Nos; Balm – 240 packets and Batteries – 120 Nos have been recovered.
“A total of 286 nakas are operational,” said Rajesh Agrawal, Chief Electoral Officer, Manipur.
At least 18039 arms (80.53%) have been deposited so far against 59.76% in the 2017 Assembly election, said the Officer and that 6456 persons Bound down.
Agrawal further informed that despite stringent action and high alert of all concerned departments, especially Police, Excise and State Tax, IMFL/DIC liquor seizures are on the rise.
A total of 328 FIRs were registered from 1st of August 2021 including 60 cases of NDPS. From the Date of announcement (ie., 08/01/2022), a total of 45 FIRs were registered across the State, he added.
Stating that adequate numbers of Central Paramilitary Forces/CAPF will be deployed in elections, Agrawal said CAPF are already deployed and are being effectively used in Area domination and in Vulnerable pockets/hamlets, as a step towards Confidence building amongst the electorate.
The traccar application will be used to systematically track the movement of each identified election official on the day of election. A companion traccar app will be installed on each official with required permissions and must be put ON all the time to be able to track their locations, Agrawal stated.
E-atlas will be used for mapping information of status of safe arrival of Polling Officers, voter at queue reporting service, live incident reporting service (which will be flagged instantaneously to the Control Room, Live EVM/VVPAT malfunction reporting service, Live Poll Close Monitoring service.
The Sector teams will be tracked through these Apps and communication in case of any emergency/ functional issues of EVMs will be flagged and reported through these APPS to the Sector Teams. These APPs are an innovation of Manipur and are in place only in our State, he claimed.
