""Ban on road shows, Pad-Yatras, cycle/bike/vehicle rallies and processions will remain as before," the EC said. (PTI) The Election Commission on Sunday reiterated that the ban on physical rallies and roadshows will continue to remain in effect in poll-bound states, but granted more relaxations for physical public meetings in indoor halls and for outdoor meetings.
“Restrictions regarding outdoor meeting/indoor meetings/rallies will be further relaxed subject to condition that the number of persons attending the indoor/outdoor meetings/rallies will be limited to maximum of 50 percent of the capacity of Indoor halls and 30 percent of the open ground capacity or as fixed by DEO as per requirement of the social distancing norms and whichever is less,” the EC said in a statement.
“Ban on road shows, Pad-Yatras, cycle/bike/vehicle rallies and processions will remain as before. Maximum number of persons permissible for door-to-door campaigning fixed at 20 will also remain as before. Ban on campaign between 8 PM and 8 AM will also continue as before,” added.
On January 31, the EC had further extended the ban on physical rallies and roadshows till February 11.
“Chief Secretaries of poll going States have written to the Commission and have apprised that there has been significant improvement in the prevailing Covid situation, a considerable decrease in the number of positive cases of COVID and also decrease in cases of hospitalization. Most of them have recommended to the Commission to consider for relaxation and allow increased number of persons in the indoor/outdoor campaign meetings,” the EC said.
The commission had also appointed 15 former bureaucrats as special observers for the poll-bound states.
“Many Special Observers have sent their reports and have stated that the Covid situation has improved substantially and positivity rate has come down significantly,” the EC said.
“They have also stated that coverage of vaccination in the state is very satisfactory for the 1st Dose, 2nd Dose and Precaution Dose to frontline workers and Poll duty officials. In this light, they have recommended that the Commission may consider revisiting the existing campaign guidelines and permit further relaxation in the Campaign norm to ensure greater participation in the ongoing election process. Most of them recommended to increase limit of the number of people attending the rallies in open/indoor space to about 50% and not limiting it to a number,” it added.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
