Congress Asks EC To Stop Harassing Common Public

G Niranjan, senior vice-president of the Telangana Congress, Chairman of the Election Commission Coordination Committee of the party in Telangana, has written a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar about the hardships and mental agony being experienced by the common public due to checks and seizures of money and gold unconnected to electioneering.

In his letter, Niranjan said that the Election Commission, unhappy with the influence of money and manpower during the Munugode by-election and the failure of its officials in containing it, had started whipping the common public from the very day - October 9, 2023 - of the announcement of the schedule of Telangana's Assembly elections when the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) came into place, with the checking of vehicles and seizure of money, probably to show its effective implementation of MCC.

The lives of the common citizens had turned miserable due to the unwarranted vehicle checks, and seizures of cash and gold which were in no way connected to the elections.

"We realise that the intention of the EC is to curb the flow of money intended to influence the voters, but it should certainly not put the common man to hardships by creating hindrances to their day-to-day personal and business activities. According to news reports, 90% of the amount seized in 2018 was returned to the owners after the elections. Given there are 51 days between the day that the MCC came into existence on October 9 and the election day, it means that the genuine persons need to wait for upto 50 days to get their money back," Niranjan said.

"A businessman from Kondapur, planning to go on a week-long vacation, took his gold jewellery to a bank to deposit it in his locker. At the bank, he was intercepted by men in plainclothes who claimed to be from the police and confiscated the jewellery. They forced him to sign a receipt which stated that the seizure was done at a nearby check post. Checks are being conducted near business areas, wine shops, banks and registration offices, and money is being seized. Even where there are chances of documents being produced in an hour or so, money was being seized, a trader from Ameerpet said. There are several such instances to report," he added.

Niranjan requested the EC to direct the officers concerned to first ascertain whether the cash they discover is intended for elections or not before seizing it, and to put an end to the woes of the common man.