ECI finds gaps in expenses shown by SAD candidate Charanjit Atwal

Deepkamal Kaur
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, May 17

A major discrepancy has been found in the expenditure shown by SAD candidate Charanjit Atwal by the Election Commission committee set up for monitoring expenditure.

While Atwal claimed to have spent only Rs 13.36 lakh by May 13, the ECI team that has been following the developments put the total expenditure to Rs 32 lakh, almost 2.4 times higher. The members of the expenditure monitoring team who have been reconciling the registers of the candidate with their own said that the candidate’s team insisted that the bills furnished by them for the events be considered rather than the rates notified by the ECI.

To this, the election observers are learned to have told Atwal’s team that they cannot go out of the system and have to follow the set, genuine rates for all items, approved in the all-party meeting, also attended by the SAD representatives. The team of SAD nominee is believed to have argued that since they had good relations with the people in the market, they were offering them items at a lower price but the ECI teams insisted that the common rate system will have to be followed for a level playing field with the other 18 candidates from all walks of life.

While the expenditure has been reconciled twice, tomorrow is the third meeting for matching the expenses noted in the registers of the candidates and the expenditure observer. IAS officer Jitendra Jorwal, who is handling the expenditure teams, said, “The matter will be settled. The candidate cannot go out of the system and has to accept the rates fixed by us.”

Charanjit Atwal’s son Inder Iqbal Atwal said, “We too were called for looking into the gap. It is just that they are adding up an additional Rs 3 lakh expenditure on us. There are some loopholes. A final meeting is yet to take place after which either side can challenge the matter.”

Till May 13, Congress candidate Chaudhary Santokh Singh had spent the most. His expenditure touched Rs 40.68 lakh. AAP candidate Justice Jora Singh had spent Rs 16.06 lakh. Balwinder Kumar, BSP candidate, put his expenditure at Rs 18.19 lakh. Retired Navy personnel Jagan Nath Bajwa of Hum Bharatiya Party spent Rs 1.12 lakh.

The least expenditure was shown by Baljinder Singh of Nationalist Justice Party. Making his income through charity, Independent candidate Swami Nityanand too has spent Rs 36,540. Small-time worker and Independent candidate Neetu Shutteranwala too has spent Rs 23,190 on his campaign. Interestingly, Urmila, a UP-based Ambedkar National Congress candidate, who showed only Rs 295 as her asset, has spent

Rs 67,394. The uppermost limit set by the ECI for a candidate to spend is Rs 70 lakh.