Govt hoardings yet to be removed; Cong, TMC move CEC

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaMarch 18, 2024

As the Assam government is yet to remove the billboards displaying various advertisements of the Centre and the state government with photographs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) and Assam Trinamool Congress on Monday wrote to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) accusing the BJP of violating the Model Code of conduct for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

In a letter to CEC Rajiv Kumar, APCC president Bhupen Kumar Borah accused the BJP of violating the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) by using the images of the Prime Minister and the chief minister in government advertisements ahead of the upcoming elections.

“This is to bring to your notice that despite the Model Code of Conduct coming into force, the Assam government has not yet removed advertisements and publicity material with the photographs of the Prime Minister, Chief Minister etc.”

In a similar letter to CEC, Assam TMC president Ripun Borah said: “There are still a visible huge number of hoardings across the state of Assam bearing different advertisements of the government with photographs of Prime Minister and chief minister of Assam, etc.”

“Therefore you are requested to direct the Assam government to remove all the government advertisements with photographs of the Prime Minister and chief minister immediately,” Borah said.

On Sunday Assam’s chief electoral officer (CEO) told reporters that the ECI has asked the government to remove all hoarding from government properties within 24 hours, from public properties within 48 hours and from private properties (without consent) within 72 hours.