BHUBANESWAR: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has formed enforcement squads, expenditure observers and Excise teams to keep an eye on expenditure of candidates and crack down on illegal smuggling of liquor during polls in the State.

Officials said the squads have been appointed to ensure stringent enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct ahead of the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. The poll expenditure limit of a candidate in Odisha is `28 lakh for Assembly elections and `70 lakh for Lok Sabha. The ECI has advised people to show valid documents for cash above `50,000.

In order to monitor election expenditure of candidates, the Commission has appointed 467 flying squads comprising a senior official, a videographer and three to four armed police personnel, 453 Static Surveillance Teams (SSTs) having one magistrate and three to four police personnel, 260 Video Surveillance Teams (VSTs) comprising one official and a videographer and 178 Video Verifying Teams (VVT) having an official and two clerks along with 225 assistant expenditure observers (AOE) for the purpose.

Each Assembly constituency will be monitored by at least three flying squads, three SSTs, one VST and one VVT.  Besides, the ECI has deployed 147 Excise teams to crack down on illegal liquor smuggling during the polls.  Sources said Excise sleuths have already seized around 586 litre of liquor in the State.

As part of the enforcement measures, the Excise squads had conducted raids in the bordering areas of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh five days back. The joint team of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh had seized 3,830 litre wash, 160 litre ID liquor and had arrested one person in this connection. Six days back, the Excise squads had launched a major crackdown on illicit liquor smuggling in Badagada and Sorada areas of Ganjam and seized huge quantities of country-made liquor, officials said.