In order to conduct free and fair elections and check flow of black money, the Election Commission (EC) has imposed restrictions on printing of posters and pamphlets.
Any candidates failing to have names of the printer and publisher in the poll related posters and pamphlets would face punishment of jail term up to six months or fine of Rs 2,000 or both, said Deputy Chief Electoral Officer (DCEO) Sanghamitra Satapathy. Talking to newsmen, the DCEO said that the printer and publisher of the poll posters and pamphlets must give a printer line mentioning number of copies printed and date of printing.
The copy of each poster and pamphlet would be submitted to the District Collector who is the District Election Officer (DEO) and in case of the printing was done in the State capital, the sample copies be submitted to the State Chief Electoral Officer within stipulated time frame failing which legal action would also be taken against them, she said. Satapathy said that step was being taken to monitor the poll expenditure of the candidates in fray. Instructions on restriction of printing of pamphlets and posters have already been issued to all printing presses. An advertisement has also been issued in local news papers in this regard, she said. She said that for the conduct of elections, as many as 36,000 vehicles and three helicopters would be requisitioned. Besides, in order to ensure free and fair elections and incident free polling process, as many as 1,100 video cameras would be pressed into service in each polling station. To ensure incident free polling, the DEOs have been advised to make arrangement of installation of CCTV cameras in all the booths wherever necessary, she said.
The DCEO said that instructions had been given to all DEOs to ensure basic minimum facilities like toilet, ramps, drinking water and electricity in all the polling stations. This time, all polling stations will have plastic voting compartments instead of cloth and the DEOs have been asked to procure standardized voting compartments.