Thiruvananthapuram: The state election commission has asked district collectors to set up anti-defacement squads to conduct checks on whether the candidates and political parties are campaigning strictly in adherence with the law.
At the district level, the squad should be formed under the assistant collector or a sub-collector or a deputy collector who is not a returning officer. At the taluk level, a squad under tahsildar or an officer in the gazetted rank should be formed. The squad should examine if the notices, banners, boards, wall posters, loud speaker announcements and meetings and the campaign through social media are legal.
The commission had earlier issued a circular regarding the use of plastic and flex material. The squad should examine if the use of these is according to the provisions in the circular issued by the commission. The squad should instruct the concerned to remove any illegal use of posters or any other campaign material, and if they do not adhere to the directions, steps should be taken to remove them and the expenses should be billed against the concerned candidate or the party.
The election commission instructed all political parties, candidates and the printing press that the campaign material being printed should mandatorily contain the name and contact of the printer and publisher. Before printing such materials, the press owner should give declaration certified by two persons in the prescribed format the details of the publisher, and it should be handed over to the election official. Any violation of this rule would invite an imprisonment up to six months, a fine of Rs 2,000 or both.
Private buildings, compounds or boundary walls should not be used for painting election graffiti or erecting campaign material without the permission of the owner. If any public place is being used for erecting campaign material, all political parties should be given equal opportunity to do so. Government offices should not be used for erecting any kind of campaign material. If there are complaints regarding defacing of any public or private property, the election officials should take necessary steps to ensure that those are removed, state election commissioner V Bhaskaran said.