Imphal, Mar 4 (PTI) Manipur Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Rajesh Agarwal on Friday said that the state government had not violated the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) by releasing stipend to militant groups that have declared Suspension of Operations (SoO). Since the beneficiaries were already identified and approved before the announcement of election and enforcement of the MCC, there is no violation of MCC in connection with the Manipur assembly elections, a CEO release said. The development came after senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh alleged that the state government had released Rs 15.70 crore to banned militant groups under SoO on February 1 and an additional Rs 92.65 lakh on March 1 to "influence voting" in Churachandpur, Kangpokpi, Tengnoupal and Chandel districts. The CEO had on Thursday sought reports from the Home and Finance departments of the state government on the allegation. As per the reports submitted by the departments, Rs 15.7 crore was released as backlog monthly stipend to SoO groups KNO and UPF from October 2020 to September 2021. The reports said that a monthly stipend of Rs 6,000 each was released to 1,122 KNO cadre and 1,059 UPF cadre as part of the ongoing programme since 2008. It was also clarified that a sanctioned amount of Rs.1.02 crore was for payment of financial benefits to surrenderees as per revised scheme for surrender-cum-rehabilitation of militants in the Northeast and the same is not related to SoO groups, the CEO statement said. Ramesh had termed the payments to the militant groups as "complete violation of MCC" and nothing but "bribery and corruption". Ahead of the first phase of the Manipur assembly elections, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had on February 23 said that if BJP was re-elected, the government would solve Kuki insurgency within five years. Following the announcement, KNO, in a statement, called on people in its "operational areas" to support BJP candidates and said that acting against it would be deemed as acting against Kuki interest. Several other Kuki militant outfits had also made similar calls to support BJP candidates. Incidents of damaging EVMs, proxy voting and booth capturing were reported in Kuki-dominated Churachandpur and Kangpokpi districts in the first phase of Manipur assembly elections on February 28. ECI had approved re-polling in 11 polling stations in Churachandpur and Kangpokpi after returning officers of these stations reported damages to Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). The second and last phase of Manipur assembly elections will be held on Saturday. PTI COR ACD ACD