New Delhi, December 26
Taking a stern view of the defacement of public property in Patna by the Rashtriya Janata Dal for the proposed rally, the full meeting of the Election Commission today directed the Bihar government to fix the responsibility for the violation of the Act, recover the cost from the political party and remove all hoardings posters and other material by December 30.
The three member poll panel met on Sunday to consider, among other things, the report of K.J. Rao, EC adviser, who had been asked to inquire into the alleged violation of the model code of conduct by the RJD after elections to the state Assembly were announced.
The Commission also decided to direct of the Bihar Chief Secretary to inquire into the how the public property was allowed to be defaced in violation of the Bihar Prevention of Defacement of Property Act, 1985.
He has been asked to send a report in the matter fixing responsibility on the officers concerned for their acts of omission and commission by December 31 positively.
“He has also been asked to obtain the explanations of the officers responsible and forward the same to the commission by January 5, 2005,” a press note issued by the commission after the meeting said.
“The commission has further asked the state government of Bihar to fix the penalty for violation of the said Act and recover the same from the concerned political parties,” it said.
All the District Election Officers-cum-District Magistrates have also been asked to recover the expenditure incurred on the removal of the hoardings and other election material from the political party concerned before January 14 and to send a compliance report to the commission by 5 pm on that day.
Mr Rao had visited Bihar on December 21 and 22 to inquire into various complaints regarding the violation of the model code of conduct and misuse of official machinery by the RJD for its proposed “maha rally” on December 23, which has since been called off.
According to the press note, Mr Rao found large- scale defacement of public property by the workers of the RJD in Nalanda, Vaishali and Patna districts.
“A large number of buildings, both public and private, trees, rocks, signboards, bridges, etc., were found painted for the RJD’s rally,” it said.
“Large number of arches/gates were also found erected on national highways and other roads. MLAs’ Hostel, officers’ hostel, government hospital, state government offices, government schools, central government offices, Bihar Government Secretariat, airport, railway stations, Gandhi Setu (bridge), main bus stand, kotwali police station, High Court building, etc., were found defaced through the posters, banners, hoardings, arches, etc.,” it said.
The EC directed that political parties to remove all hoarding and other things put out by them in violation of the Act in public and private properties by 5 pm on December 30 and restore those properties to their original position.
“Even the bogies of Rajgir Intercity Express, ticket counters at the railway station, computerised reservation centre of the railways at Patna were not spared,” it said.
The commission also directed the Chairman of Railway Board to inquire into the matter as to how the Railway property was allowed to be defaced and send a report in the matter fixing responsibility by December 31.
The Railway Board has been asked to recover the damages for defacement of their property from the concerned political party and send the report to the commission.
