The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Delhi has filed 106 FIRs for the violation of the Model Code of Conduct against political parties for the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections. Forty five are against Aam Aadmi Party, 21 against BJP, 25 against Congress, 8 against BSP, 1 against RJD, 1 against INlD, 1 against Akali Dal (BJP) and 4 against unknowns, respectively.
Till January 18, a total number of 7,828 people have been booked under various Sections of CRPC/DP Act, as preventive action measure 50 licensed arms deposited, 9 unlicensed arms and 1,028 cartridges seized.
Forty nine certificates have been issued by Media Certification Monitoring committee. These apart, 166 bottles of country liquor, 129 bottles of IMFl and 84 bottles of beer have also been seized. 1,402 hoardings have been removed from public property. The Election Commission (EC) on Monday lashed out at the menace of paid news and ensured regulations on circulation of political advertisement during the election period.
“Any news or analysis appearing in any media (print and electronic) for a price in cash or kind as a consideration shall be construed as paid news. State as well as district level MCMC Committees have been empowered to decide the cases of paid news on complaint or suo motu as per procedure defined by ECI and if the committee decides any news to be paid news, the actual expenditure or notional expenditure based on DIPR rates, as the case may be, shall be included in the election expense account of the candidate irrespective of whether the candidate actually has paid or not paid any amount to the channel/newspaper,” said a poll officer of Delhi CEO.
During Delhi Assembly elections 2013, 54 paid news cases were registered by the district in print media. The candidates across the different parties were involved in these cases and expenditure on publishing paid news was included in the candidate expenditure account.
During lok Sabha elections, six cases paid news cases were reported. “All the mediapersons were advised to discourage the practice of paid news during election period,” said an official.