Punjab Chief
Electoral Officer Dr S Karuna Raju on Friday held a meeting with
representatives of the recognized political parties to sensitize them about the
allotment of time for electioneering on public broadcasting system.CEO was
accompanied by Additional Chief Electoral Officer Kavita Singh, Additional
Chief Electoral Officer Sibin C and Additional Chief Electoral Officer
Bhupinder Singh Rai.The CEO informed the representatives that during campaign,
the candidate has to make payments more than Rs 10,000 either by cheque, Demand
Draft or RTGS while the party candidate could receive donations amounting over
Rs 10,000 through cheque, Demand Draft and RTGS. He also apprised them that
during the period of enforcement of model code of conduct, the political parties
could only make cash transactions as per section 29-C of Representation of
People Act 1951.Briefing about mandatory publication of criminal past of
candidate in newspapers and Televisions through advertisements, the CEO gave
detailed information about Form-C4, Form-C5 besides Form-26 to provide complete
income tax information of candidate's spouse, his/her dependents and and HUFs
for past five years . He also emphasized that the political parties were
mandated to provide information regarding
electioneering expenditure especially use of choppers and planes to the
office of Chief Electoral Officer, Punjab.
Exhorting the
political parties to use eco-friendly publicity material, the CEO urged them to
ensure the use of such electioneering material to maintain the clean, green and
safe environment.Dr Raju disclosed that the commission had allotted time for
publicity through public broadcasting system to state and national political
parties. As per the allotted time, these parties can campaigning on All India
Radio and Doordarshan Kendras, said he adding that the state recognized
political parties namely Aam Aadmi Party had been given 43 minutes for
publicity through Doordarshan and All India Radio, Five Minutes each to Bahujan
Samaj Party, CPI (M) and 41 minutes to Shiromani Akali Dal.The CEO said that
political parties recognized at national level Congress Party had been allotted
15 minutes and 10 minutes to Bhartiya Janta Party.The meeting was attended by
representatives of Aam Aadmi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, CPI (M), Shiromani
Akali Dal, Congress Party and Bhartiya Janta Party.