As the Gujarat assembly elections approach, Chief Election Commissioner has announced many initiatives concerning the upcoming assembly elections. One of the announcements was concerning the e-Vigilance app.
Normally, the election Commission keeps an eye on the transfer of cash, alcohol, and narcotic substances as well as on news items published by accepting money to do so. The EC had taken note that parties and candidates had restored to paid news to woo voters in the 2017 elections.
The Election Commission had deployed squads and static surveillance teams to keep the 2017 elections transparent. The teams were made of 79 expenditure observers, 599 flying squads, and 643 static surveillance teams.
The flying squad had seized cash worth Rs 45,36,150 and the Static Surveillance Team had caught Rs 11,34,180, whereas police caught hold of Rs 1,07,72,410 and 3650 pounds.
During this election, 723 liters of liquor and 35 kg of narcotic substances were seized by the flying squad and 184 liters of liquor by the static surveillance team. A total of Rs 25,28,21,574 worth of illegal cash and material were seized by the police in the election year 2017. Rs 1,14,96,000 was deposited with the Income Tax Department.
As far as paid news is concerned, in the 2017 elections, 141 suspected cases of paid news were reported across the state out of which 121 cases of paid news were confirmed by the district level Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC).
MCMC is a district level and state level committee whose job is to issue a certificate before a news is given for publication by any political party or candidate. The news can be published or broadcast only after receiving that certificate.
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