NMC finalizes rate for daily poll expenses

NAGPUR: After the State Election Commission (SEC) has set Rs 4 lakh poll expenses for corporation elections, the election department of the NMC on Friday issued guidelines scheduling rates for election campaigning of the candidates.
Though the scheduling rates has come as a welcome relief for many contestants, not all are comfortable with it. Especially because the SEC would closely monitor every Rupee spent by the candidates as they will have to maintain the expenses through special bank accounts for the purpose.
The SEC has directed election officers to take into account prevailing local rates for services and prepare a list of major articles or services.The list will be referred to by the respective returning officers to calculate expenditure of candidates regardless of the value of vouchers produced by them.
Even though rates quoted by the SEC are less than the prevailing market rates, parties and candidates are already claiming these were on the lower side.
City Congress President Vikas Thakre said the rates decided by the civic body were much lesser than the prevailing market rates. He claimed the SEC values each cup of tea with snacks at Rs25 but the same is being available between Rs40 and Rs50. With the increase in constituency of each corporator with four wards in one prabhag, Thakre said the poll expenditure limit should also be increased from Rs4 lakh to at least Rs8 lakh.
The specified rate for a petrol driven car is Rs1200 per day or 250km. However, in market, the rate is Rs2000 and Rs2600 for AC car, a private transporter said. Only small cars like Indica can be hired for Rs1200 per day, he said.
However, there are many candidates who feel that the rates decided by the panel is much exorbitant. Citing an example, he said the market rate for hiring a truck is between Rs2,000-2500 including fuel and driver’s wages. However, the list quotes Rs3,550.
Justifying the rate list, an official from NMC’s election department said that the rates had been revised considering various aspects. He pointed out that during 2007 and 2012 polls, the rate for erecting a welcome arch was Rs700-2500 per day and Rs1,000-3,000 respectively. Now the rates were revised to Rs1100-Rs4,000 which was reasonable.