TS babu addresses nodal officers

New Delhi: Civil Supplies Commissioner C V Anand on Sunday addressed the nodal officers of the five States - Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur - which would go to polls from February 11 at Nirvachan Sadan here on ‘Expenditure Control, Collection of Intelligence and Coordination of Various Agencies’.

Anand, who spoke soon after the inaugural address by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Dr Nasim Zaidi and two Election Commissioners Achala Kumar Joti and Om Prakash Rawat, gave recent examples and case studies and issues from the Tamil Nadu elections where he was special observer and also from Cyberabad in the 2014 general elections, for which he had received the National Award for Best Performance in the Country on expenditure control.

He referred to various systems introduced by him like fitting GPS on all election related vehicles of the State Surveillance Teams and Flying Squads, starting of joint control rooms, tracking of bank accounts and suspicious bank and ATM transfer and transactions, transport of cash and goods by air, helicopters, trains and buses and other vehicles, gold loans auctions, accounts of NGOs/Self Help Groups, techniques to develop informants and intelligence, tracking the production of liquor breweries and wine shops etc.

He said these practices had now become an integral part of election management after 2014 general elections in Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Assam.

He told the election officers on the need to use social media, especially WhatsApp, gainfully for conduct of elections and get valuable feedback from public.