Paid news practice to be considered as corruption: CEC

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Terming the paid news practice as unethical, CEC S Y Quraishi today said the Election Commission is considering exploring legal options to treat it as corruption under the Representation of People Act.

"We are also examining the possibility of criminal proceedings against candidates indulging in such practice," Quraishi said responding to a question.

Such practices were unethical and amounted to deceiving people. The move would enable the Election Commission to have a bearing on election petitions filed by candidates, Quraishi told reporters after a meeting with top state officials on the preparedness for the Assembly polls due early next year.

So far, 86 cases of paid news have been identified, he said, adding that the EC's power was confined to candidates only and not on media.

"We are examining what action could be initiated on this," he said.

District-level monitoring committees would be set up to keep an eye on candidates trying to influence media, he said.

Stating that money power has become a very serious problem in Indian democracy, the CEC said Expenditure monitoring committees would strictly watch the expenses of candidates.

All candidates would have to open a special bank account for election expenses, he said.

The new election expenditure monitoring mechanism adopted by EC during the recent Bihar polls was a success and would be emulated in future polls, he said.

Monitoring would be done in cooperation with officials of Revenue Intelligence and I-T Department.

On the modifications and improvements to be carried out on EVMs,he said the Commission would consider the EC's Technical Committee recommendations on the matter.

All political parties only wanted improvement on the present EVMs and nobody wanted to go back to the old system of ballot boxes, he said.

The Commission would have to look into all aspects of recommendations before deciding whether modified EVMs should be used in the next Assembly polls due in five states.

On the election preparedness in Kerala, he said that arrangements were on track. At present electoral roll revision process was progressing in a satisfactory manner. The EC's focus was to enroll all youths as voters, he said.

The photo-identity cards of new voters would be given at a special function to be held next month, he added.

Deputy Election Commissioner Alok Shukla and state Chief Electoral Officer Nalini Netto were also present.