Mumbai: The control room set up by Income Tax Department to enable citizens to report suspicious transactions or movement of large sums of money has evoked lukewarm response, and in one particular instance the facility was used out of personal enmity.
The control room was set up by the investigation wing of the IT department when the Model Code of Conduct for Lok Sabha polls came into force in early March. It was meant to involve citizens in curbing use of money power in elections.
But till now, only five calls had been received by the staff manning the unit and no recovery of money has been made.
"We have received only five calls. In fact, one caller called us three times. So, effectively only three people have called us till now," an IT investigation wing official said Tuesday.
Sources in the department said the first two callers did not give any actionable inputs and information provided by them was vague in nature.
"The callers just told us some cash was coming to Latur and to Mumbai. This is not a workable input," they said.
The person who called us three times gave wrong inputs, making us stop a family going to Chennai from Mumbai in two vehicles, the sources said.
"He gave us registration numbers of the vehicles and said cash was being transported in them." The I-T officials immediately informed the police, who swung into action but returned empty handed. The people who were stopped were labourers.
"We later learnt the caller was settling score on some real estate issue as they (the people who were stopped) were not vacating their slum dwellings," the sources said.
The department has provided two numbers - 1800220115 and 02222627275 - to report suspicious movement of unaccounted cash or bullion which may be used to influence voters.
The department has advised general public to carry necessary documents, including identity card and PAN card, while carrying large amounts of cash or bullion.
