No plastic, be environment-friendly, EC tells parties in Ktk

BANGALORE: The May Assembly elections in Karnataka could well be environment-friendly with the Election Commission today appealing to political parties to desist from using plastic in campaign material. Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami said all the parties were requested not to use plastic in campaign material because it's in the interest of environment.

Gopalaswami, along with Election Commissioners S Y Quraishi and Navin Chawla, who arrived here yesterday, held meetings with representatives of political parties, as well as election and district officials on the poll preparedness and related matters.

Elections in Karnataka would be held in three-phases on May 10, 16 and 22. He said one of the political parties pointed out during the meeting that industries don't observe holiday on the day of the polling. Gopalaswami said Karnataka Election Commission CEO, M N Vidyashankar, would hold a meeting with industries in this regard.

Continuous process industries (such as IT and Business process outsourcing) are exempted from declaring holiday but they should give enough time for employees to exercise their franchise. "One of the major concern of political parties is about the model code of conduct with respect to use of banners, posters etc", Gopalaswami told reporters.

He said the Commission would study the Karnataka Defacement of Public Properties Act and three of its amendments and would issue a clarification to political parties on the issue on Monday.