India seizes cash, drugs, booze in pre-vote crackdown

MUMBAI: Christian voters in the Indian city of Mumbai have demanded more burial grounds ahead of national elections next month, claiming they are being forced to pile bodies on top of each other due to overcrowding in cemeteries. India will hold a general election from April 11 and campaigning is now in full swing, with job security, hardship among rural communities and tackling terrorism the key talking points so far.

Christians total 2.3 percent of India's 1.3 billion population, and an estimated 900,000 of the community live in the country's financial capital Mumbai and its satellite cities, according to Christian associations. Mumbai Christians want to get their voices heard and add burial grounds to the list of election topics. "We are going to meet the candidates and make a strong pitch for burial grounds," Kasber Augustine, a member of the Bombay Catholic Sabha said. The community's members met at the weekend to discuss the problem and yesterday launched the #NoCemeteryNoVote hashtag to help publicize their demands.

"The community has no option but to bury one body over the other. We do shroud burials now to save space," Augustine said. There are six public cemeteries in Mumbai and three in its neighboring district of Thane, considered a Mumbai suburb. To make effective use of space, the community uses shrouds instead of wood coffins, digs out the remains after about two years once the body is decomposed. The remains are deposited into miniature vaults, but their numbers are also running low.

Community members said that bodies are rarely decomposed when another comes for burial, leading to an unpleasant experience for family members who see the remains of their loved ones juggled to make space. "You don't have a dignified living. And then you don't have a dignified death," said Dolphy D'souza, former national vice-president of the All India Catholic Union. With a population of about 18 million, overcrowding is an everyday affair in Mumbai - from packed trains, traffic congestion and cramped housing.

In death, people should get peace and space, said Christian community's members, adding that previous promises made by authorities to provide more cemetery space had not been kept. Parliamentarian Rajan Vichare of regional party Shiv Sena that controls the civic bodies of Mumbai and Thane said work on a new burial ground in Thane was nearing completion. "Nothing happens overnight. It will be ready in another six months. I will be mentioning this during my election speeches," said Vichare, who will be contesting the elections this year.

Pre-vote crackdown

Meanwhile, Indian authorities have seized more than $70 million worth of cash, booze and illegal drugs under special laws designed to curb vote buying during the world's biggest election, officials said yesterday. Around 900 million Indians are eligible to vote in the mammoth polls, which start April 11 and run nearly six weeks in a huge endeavor some experts say could cost $10 billion.

From the moment the election was announced on March 10, special laws took effect banning all Indians from carrying large amounts of money, gold or silver to reduce the risk of politicians buying votes. Officials such as police and railway staff are granted temporary powers during the campaign to seize booze, cash or other goods they believe are being used to sway voters.

So far, authorities have confiscated 4.4 million liters of liquor and 1.5 billion rupees ($21.8 million) in cash considered suspicious, the election commission said in a statement. Illegal drugs worth an almost similar amount had been seized, the commission said. "Freebies" stockpiled in trucks along highways worth an estimated 120 million rupees were also confiscated. No exact description of the goods was provided, but in the past political parties have used mobile phones, televisions and other electronic gadgets to entice votes.

Poorer voters are particularly targeted by unscrupulous politicians during elections and plied with cash and luxury items to garner support and influence. To combat this, special election laws prohibit anybody from possessing more than one kilogram of gold or silver, or carrying in excess of one million rupees, until the results are declared on May 23. In the 2014 elections, 16 million liters of liquor and 17,000 kilograms of drugs seized. This election, a mobile-based application lets voters report any wrongdoing taking place in their electorate, in a bid to clean up the poll.- Agencies