Chief Election Commissioner, Shri Sushil Chandra today addressed the 74th batch of Indian Revenue Service Officer Trainees (IRS) at India International Institute of Democracy & Election Management, New Delhi. This customized program is a first of its kind training module for the 61 IRS Officer Trainees of the 74th batch, organized by IIIDEM in collaboration with National Academy of Direct Taxes (NADT). The course provides an overview of the Election Commission of India, its role and functions coupled with an understanding of the future role of the IRS Officers in the election process. The training program has classroom/online sessions and field visits for Officer Trainees to understand the system.
Smt. Smita Jhingran, Principal DG, HRD from Central Board of Direct Taxes and senior officials from IIIDEM, ECI and NADT were present during the interaction.
CEC Shri Sushil Chandra while addressing the young Officer Trainees, said that determination, commitment and fairness are the ideals of civil services. He added that civil services provide a wide canvas for fulfilling one’s aspirations to serve the country and an opportunity to harness one’s talent. CEC advised the youngsters to make excellence a habit and serve the nation with honesty and sincerity. He urged the OTs to be more friendly to honest tax payers and come down heavily with iron fist on tax evaders.
Recalling the initiatives taken as CBDT Chairman, he emphasized on the need for introducing systemic changes for good governance. He mentioned the instrumental role of the comprehensive revision of Form 26, done in 2018, as a format for declaring details of all assets and liabilities, submitted along with nomination papers, by the contesting candidates.
Addressing the officers, CEC Shri Chandra noted that this batch of IRS Officer Trainees is the second ever batch of any Group A service which is being trained in electoral process, as an integral part of its probationer training program. He highlighted that IRS Officers, with their deep knowledge of expenditure monitoring, finance and accounting, have proven to be an asset to ECI’s election monitoring process.
Acknowledging the importance of expenditure monitoring during the elections, Shri Chandra said that ECI is committed to ensure free, fair and inducement free elections in the country. He added that many IRS officers as Expenditure Observers play a vital role in ensuring that money power does not vitiate the level playing field amongst the contesting candidates. While sharing his experience of deputing Special Expenditure Observers, he mentioned that some recent elections have in fact been rescinded purely because of the vigilant role played by senior IRS officers. Shri Chandra asked the young officers to discharge their duties sincerely so that they also play an exemplary role and contribute their expertise in ensuring free, fair and transparent elections.
CEC also highlighted that effective monitoring has resulted in record seizures in the recent Assembly Elections held in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry. The concerted efforts and strong vigil by the officers resulted in a drastic increase in seizures in 2021 which was more than 4.5 times the seizure figures in previous elections in these States held in 2016. Shri Chandra also added that the increased involvement of IRS officers with the Election Commission can be gauged by the fact that a separate Election Cell has been created by CBDT in September this year to expedite pending matters of investigation of falsity in affidavits filed by contesting candidates and analyzing contribution and annual reports of political parties.
