The Election Commission, headed by reform-oriented CEC S.Y.Quraishi, is unhappy the government has not considered the changesit has been pushing for so many years, including declaring"paid news" a poll offence. Mr. Quraishi, known for his voter-friendly reforms, is demittingoffice on June 10. On February 3 last year, the EC suggested that publication andabetment of "paid news" for furthering the electionprospects of any candidate or prejudicially affecting the chancesof other contestants be made an offence under the Representation ofthe People Act, 1951, entailing imprisonment up to two years. Moily's promise The then Law and Justice Minister, M. Veerappa Moily, made apromise that a Bill in this regard would be tabled in Parliament."But nothing happened and we are waiting still," saidan exasperated EC official. In fact, the then Law Minister had visited Nirvachan Sadan at leastthrice to hold discussions with officials on electoral reforms, butnothing came of it. The amendment to the RP Act, as proposed by the EC, would serve asa deterrent at least to some extent as there were no legislation atpresent to pull up "corrupt journalists" or punish"corruption by media in the form of publishing news againstmoney," the official said. This was all the more important as the EC had a few months agodisposed of the first complaint of encouragement of ‘paidnews' made against the then Rashtriya Parivartan Dal MLA (fromBisauli), Umlesh Yadav, disqualifying her for three years for notincluding the actual expenditure on newspaper publicity in her pollexpenses account. Even in this case, the media which encouraged‘paid news' and benefited from the candidate was notpunished, the official said. Official sources pointed out that right now the EC did not havepowers or jurisdiction to haul up newspapers and other mediaorganisations for benefiting from ‘paid news' thoughcomplaints had been pending before it against the former ChiefMinisters Ashok Chavan (Maharashtra) and Madhu Koda (Jharkhand). In the Umlesh Yadav case, the Press Council of India's opinionformed the basis for the EC to arrive at the conclusion that thecandidate indeed gave advertisements and did not account for thesame in her expenses. The PCI said: "The format of impugned material was such thatit would appear as a news report to the layman and the word ADVTprinted at the lowest end rather appeared to accompany a smallboxed appeal by the candidate. There was beyond doubt a possibilityof confusing the voters when the elections were just a day away andall campaigning had stopped. The act was not only unethical byjournalistic standards but also in violation of the electionlaws.". The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as E-light IPL+RF Manufacturer , Diode Laser Hair Removal Machine Manufacturer, and more. For more , please visit Liposuction Laser Machine today!
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