It is a heady cocktail of drugs, illicit liquor and money employed to woo voters in the poll-bound States, specially in Punjab. In less than a month s i n c e e l e c t i o n s w e r e announced in five states, the E l n C ommi s s i on h a s seized huge quantity of contraband drugs in Punjab ahead of Assembly polls in he State on January 30. Besides the regular contrabands including poppy husk, heroin, smack, the urveillance s q u a d c on s t i t u t e d b y t h e Election Commission and State police have seized arge quantities of a local drug called ‘lahiri’ and medicine drug powder and tablets. According to nformation procured by the Commission, 40,344 kgs of ‘lahiri’ have been seized till date while medicine tablets numbering 1.57 lakh were recovered from private persons and vehicles by the surveillance eams. Aware of the large-scale use of drugs in the State, the EC had tightened vigil on the borders. In his connection it had even met the Director General, Narcotics to request for cooperation and support in ntelligence sharing and tracking of s o u r c e . I n a d d i t i o n , t h e Commission had recovered close to 8 kg of heroin, smack and 1.55 lakh kg of poppy husk. The swift action of the Commission has aught drug peddlers by surprise. But the initiative has won accolades from civil society, which has openly backed the EC action to curb use of drugs in elections. Increased vigilance during election time has also trengthened the hands of law enforcing agencies. Last week a foreign national arrested with five ilograms of heroin near Ferozpur in Punjab was later found having l ink s wit h t e r ror i s t out f it Hizbul Mujahuddin. On his tip-off, the Punjab Police arrested another man from whom foreign currency orth 2.30 lakh was recovered along with a S IM c a rd b e l on g i n g t o Pakistan. If maximum drug eizure from Punjab is a cause for alarm, the Commission is equally concerned about the maximum cash eizures from Uttar Pradesh, the big State where a seven-phase poll is s c h e du l e d . E C g u i d e l i n restrict carrying cash above 1 lakh in poll-bound States. According to figures made available by the ncome Tax department sleuths to the EC, a total of 35 .80 crore has been seized since the date of announcement of polls. Of this, UP alone accounts for 26.8 crore with Punjab adding 8.67 crore to the tally. While traders and businessmen have objected to EC action being detrimental to their business nterests, EC sources said, “There would be inconveniences. We are here to implement the law which is in place. It is up to those who complain to ensure the cash transactions made during this t i me a r e t nsp.
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