Berhampur, April 10: Police today seized nearly Rs 51 lakh in cash from two persons in Ganjam district, where elections are to be held tomorrow.
'From the house of V. Bira Swamy at Pitapalli village in Chikiti, the police seized Rs 46.59 lakh in cash. In another operation, the cops raided Pantha Nivas in Rambha and seized Rs 4 lakh in cash from one person, who had put up there,' said Ganjam collector Prem Chandra Chowdhury.
Ali Kishore Patnaik, CPM candidate for the Berhampur Lok Sabha constituency, however, alleged that the police had seized Rs 25 lakh from the Panthanivas and not Rs 4 lakh as claimed by the district collector.
In a letter to the chief election officer, Patnaik alleged that Subash Singh, BJD observer, and two of his party colleagues, Ranjan Pallai and Bhagi Reddy, were distributing Rs 5 lakh each to panchayat sarpanchs at the Rambha Panthanivas with full police protection.
Violation
Kendrapara: A college teacher of a government-aided higher educational institute was suspended on Wednesday for violating the model code of conduct by campaigning for the BJD candidate at Pattamundai in the district, official sources said.
The accused teacher, Sridhar Behera, posted at Pattamundai Women's College faced charges of canvassing for the ruling party. An inquiry committee constituted by the district election office probed the allegations.
Show cause
Kendrapara: The Congress Lok Sabha candidate from Kendrapara seat is accused of violating model code of conduct. A show cause has been served on Dharanidhar Nayak, who has been asked to reply on a circulation of compact disc with objectionable contents.
Eye on booth
Sambalpur: As many as 151 polling stations, including 94 in the Maoist-hit areas in the district, have been identified as sensitive. There are total 883 polling stations in the district. Sambalpur superintendent of police Prateek Mohanty said arrangement of webcasting, video coverage and use of still camera had been made in the sensitive polling booths to restore confidence among voters.
