Mangaluru (IANS): Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner and also the District Electoral Officer M.R. Ravi Kumar and Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer Kumara at a meeting in Mangaluru on Saturday, DC said, ” Religious places and public places such as malls, cinemas and marriage halls should not be allowed to be used for political campaigns and propaganda”. In a series of meetings with returning officers, journalists, owners of petrol bunks, community halls and administrators of religious places, DC Kumar said people can go ahead with holding marriages, religious and other events at these places. “But these venues should not be allowed to be used for political campaigns and propaganda. In case of violation, the party concerned, the organiser and other people will be booked under the provisions of the Representation of Peoples Act,” he added.

“If Yakshagana or other cultural programmes are used in an unauthorised way for campaigning, the organiser and the artists will be booked. We will not come in the way of conduct of marriages or other social programmes. If a political party or the candidate makes use of these programmes to seek votes, then the party and the candidate concerned will be held accountable,” added DC Ravi Kumar.

Kumara, the Zilla Panchayat CEO and model code of conduct nodal officer said “All election-related printing and publishing of advertisements should be done with prior approval of the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC). Campaign-related scrolls on the news channels should also be vetted by the committee. Banks will be keeping a close watch on transactions and reporting every day about withdrawals of more than Rs10 lakh in a day or multiple payments and other suspicious transactions”.

At the meeting, Police Commissioner Kuldeep R. Jain said, “Social media platforms namely Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp should be used responsibly. We are keeping a close watch on the posts. If any of the posts causes trouble, then the creator of the posts will be booked,” It is also learnt that at a similar kind of meeting in Udupi, Deputy Commissioner M. Kurma Rao said materials printed for campaigns should have information about the name of the printer, postal address and several copies printed. The printing-related information should be submitted to the MCMC within three days of printing, he said.