When EC pays for party, comrades have some fun

The candidates aren8217;t exactly heavyweight. Trinamool8217;s Ajit Panja is defending his seat against CPM8217;s Md Salim, a state minister. But politics doesn8217;t matter, it8217;s hard to pass on this opportunity to splurge.

Especially when state employees have been having a rough time ever since the government tightened its belt: Finance Minister Ashim Dasgupta has even laid down the number of cups of tea that can be served at official meetings8212;none!

Such restrictions are out of the window, accounting standards have been freed of red tape. Payments for cars and food are often in cash without the need to submit bills, vouchers to the Pay and Accounts department. Sources in the state election department and independent investigation by The Sunday Express show:

8226; Since the first week of April, 52 cars have been engaged for 8216;8216;official8217;8217; work in this constituency. This works out to roughly one car for every three employees, ranging from Upper Division Clerks to Group D peons.

8226; Seventeen cars have been deployed for the past three weeks for the observers.

8226; Each observer has an AC car at his disposal, the remaining 14 are used by peons and clerks. Pretext: 8216;8216;Attending to the observers8217; needs.8217;8217; Thus, a peon gets a car to do errands, which includes getting cold drinks!

8226; There were food-packets for a chosen few but when others complained, all staff now get a 8216;8216;tiffin allowance.8217;8217; An official in the state election department said the daily rent for a standard car is Rs 410, fuel extra. If the car is used after 5.30 pm, the government has to pay overtime at the rate of Rs 20 per hour. Bill for cars alone for 30 days works to an estimated Rs 10 lakh.

When asked about these expenses, Returning Officer A K Das claimed to The Sunday Express that the spending was being done 8216;8216;according to requirements.8217;8217; Are 52 cars needed for 8216;8216;official8217;8217; work when there are just three election observers? Das said: 8216;8216;Yes, all these have been done within the allocated budget of Rs 1.23 crore. All others are doing that.8217;8217; Not really.

Kolkata North East has only 716 polling stations compared to 932 under Kolkata South, biggest among the three Kolkata constituencies. But the returning officer for Kolkata South hired seven cars one per each assembly segment in the early stages and another seven two per Assembly segment two weeks before the polls. A week before polling, another five were hired taking the total to 19.

Didn8217;t Das need any sanction for the expenses? Was there any system in place to fix requirements? Said Das: 8216;8216;No, there are no instructions. There is no need for any sanction, no need to justify.8217;8217; State Chief Electoral Officer Basudeb Banerjee said: 8216;8216;The number of 52 cars does not surprise me at all. Each sector has to be manned. My office has not prescribed any limit on spending to the returning officer.8217;8217; What he doesn8217;t mention is that 8216;8216;sector manning8217;8217; is done only on the day of polls but the fleet of 52 cars has been running for nearly a month now.

Asked how so many employees were drafted for poll work, Alok Bose, secretary, coordination committee, the apex body of CPM-backed unions, said: 8216;8216;It was the returning officer who decided everything. Every returning officer tries to have a a trusted team of his own and induct people accordingly.8217;8217;

Asked about the spending, he said: 8216;8216;Our unions provide full support to the state government in slashing down avoidable expenses.8217;8217; Unless, of course, the money is the EC8217;s8212;the taxpayer8217;s.