Punjab Newsline, Chandigarh, March 21 -
Haryana Chief Electoral Officer Anurag Agarwal said that during the Lok Sabha elections 2024, proper adherence to the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) should be ensured. For this purpose, Media Certification and Monitoring Committees (MCMCs) have been formed at the state and district levels to keep a vigilant eye on political advertisements, paid news, and fake news and to grant certification for them.
The Chief Electoral Officer will chair the State Level Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC). Besides this, Director General and Secretary, Information Public Relations and Languages and Culture Department, Mandip Singh Brar, an observer to be appointed by the Election Commission of India, Deputy Director, CBC, Chandigarh, Sangeeta Joshi, Member, Press Council of India,Gurinder Singh, Joint Chief Electoral Officer, Haryana, Raj Kumar and Additional Director (Admn.), Information, Public Relations, Language and Culture Department, Vivek Kalia has been nominated as a member of this committee.
This committee will decide on appeals of any political party or candidates or any other person in regard to grant or refuse certification of advertisements. Such appeals will lie only with and will be disposed of by the State Level Committee headed by Chief Electoral Officer. No reference in this regard needs to be made to the Commission.
Besides this, examining all cases of ‘Paid News’ on appeal against the decision of District Level Media Certification and Monitoring Committee or cases that they may take up suo-moto, in which case it shall direct the concerned ROs to issue notices to the candidates.
Following directives issued by the Election Commission of India, a State-Level Certification Committee has also been formed, with Additional Chief Electoral Officer Hema Sharma as the Chairperson, along with Yash Garg, IAS, Harshit Narang, Deputy Director, PIB, Chandigarh, and Nirmal Parkash, Deputy General Manager (P&A) HARTRON as its members. This committee will consider applications for pre-certification from all registered political parties having their headquarters in this State, all organizations or groups of persons or associations having their registered offices in this state.