Odisha: Dist Nodal Officers Urged to Keep Close Watch on Election Expenditure by Candidates

Bhubaneswar: A training programme of the District Nodal Officers on the Election Expenditure Monitoring for simultaneous general elections- 2024 was held in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Odisha.

Discussing the inevitability of free and fair election process in a democracy, Chief Electoral Officer Nikunja Bihari Dhal directed all district level nodal officers to discharge their responsibilities with full integrity and fearlessness.
District Nodal Officers have the responsibility to prevent misuse of money power to keep the elections free and fair.

The manner in which all the candidates spend election expenses within the prescribed limit of Rs 40 lakh and Rs 95 lakh for candidates in Assembly and Lok Sabha respectively will be kept under close watch.

The Chief Electoral Officer said that all arrangements should be made at the district level to monitor expenditure concealment, misrepresentation of expenditure, paid news etc. and to take action as per the rules.

In the two sessions- training program the nodal officers were trained in detailed about their roles, responsibilities, power, functions and the legal aspects of Election Expenditure Monitoring. It was discussed in detail by Additional Chief Electoral Officer Dr. N. Tirumala Nayak and Sataghankar through power point presentations.

Nodal Officers from all districts of the state participated and were trained about the crucial aspects of Expenditure Monitoring.