Shillong, Jan 18: State’s chief electoral officer, Frederick Roy Kharkongor today said measures are in place to check the use of money power and muscle power in the upcoming Assembly elections to be held on February 27.

“There is a very detailed mechanism to tackle money power. It is basically through awareness, technical and administrative measures besides ceiling on various expenses as fixed by the ECI,” Kharkongor told media persons here on Thursday.

Stating that one of the measures to be adopted is checking money transaction, he informed that a meeting will be convened at his leveltomorrow with the representatives of all the banks and financial institutions operating in the state.

“I will convene a meeting with all the banks wherein if any suspicious transactions is likely to have an influence over the voters, that will be flagged in terms of withdrawals and deposits,” Kharkongor said.

According to him, all the district election officers have also been asked to have meetings at their level with the banks in their districts for tackling the use of money power during the elections.

The CEO further informed that the Election Commission will also deploy expenditure observers to examine the expenditure sensitive areas which will be done in collaboration with the police and the income tax authorities.

“Besides, the use of money power will be monitored closely by the flying squads and at check posts,” he said.

The Election Commission has also constituted the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) and also the Election Expenditure Monitoring Committee (EEMC).

“These are being constituted at the CEO and at the district level and they will monitor the expenditures of the contesting candidates in collaboration with the income tax officials,” he added.

On the use of muscle power, Kharkongor said that the 100 companies of Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) will be deployed in the state to prevent incidents that can vitiate the poll environment.

According to him, the paramilitary forces that will be arriving by the end of the month, will have area domination and patrolling will be intensified to ensure that the threat of muscle power is tackled.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission also warned against village dorbars which are trying to influence the voters. “We have issued instructions to the deputy commissioners to take action against such village dorbars to ensure every resident in every village get to exercise their franchise without fear or favour,” he stated.