Even before the dates for the next Lok Sabha elections were announced, the Election Commission has banned defacement of public and private property in the country.
In a recent directive to the Centre, state governments and state chief electoral officers (CEOs), the EC has directed that no wall writing, pasting of posters/papers or defacement in any other form or erecting/displaying of cut-outs, hoardings, banners, flags etc shall be permitted on any government premise, West Bengal CEO Debahsis Sen said.
A government premise would mean any government office and the campus wherein the office building is situated, Sen clarified.
"If the local law expressly permits writing of slogans, displaying posters or erecting cut-outs, hoardings, banners, political advertisements in any public place, (as against a government premise) on payment or otherwise, then that should be strictly in accordance with the relevant provisions of the law and subject to the Court orders," he said quoting the EC directive.
The EC also wanted to be ensured that any such place was not dominated or monopolised by any particular party/parties or candidate/candidates, he said.
"All Parties and candidates should be provided equal opportunity in this regard", the EC said in the directive.
Similarly, guidelines have also been issued against defacement of private places in the EC directive, Sen said.
