Hyderabad: Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Commissioner and district election officer M. Dana Kishore on Tuesday asked owners of printing presses in the city not to print any campaign material without prior approval from the civic body. He warned the owners that strict action would be taken against them under the Representation of People’s Act in case of violation.
According to the EC guidelines, no person should print or publish any election pamphlet or poster which does not bear names and addresses of the printer and publisher. The printers or publishers who sell election material have to inform the GHMC, since it has to keep an account of expenditure incurred for the election campaign and publicity material purchased individually.
In any case of violation, action will be taken according to Section 127 A of the Representation of People’s Act 1951, wherein the violator would be liable for six months imprisonment and a fine of `2,000.
Mr Kishore held a meeting with managements of printing presses and asked them not to print election campaign material, which included pamphlets, posters, banners and flexies, without obtaining prior permission from the civic body. Mr Kishore said that candidates who would contest in the Lok Sabha polls had to submit their individual election expenditure, which included publicity material also. Hence, if the campaign material was printed the managements needed to specify the name of the printer, mobile number and name of the agency for verification.
Mr Kishore said that if any of the the rules was violated, action would be taken according to Section 127 A of the RP Act 1951.
