The committee is supposed to check paid news during elections — carrying advertisements in the pretext of news.
A
release from District Election Officer T.P. Rajesh here said that the
committee has been constituted after a consultative meeting held at the
Collectorate on Thursday.
The following were the
members: Mr. T.P. Rajesh (chairman); P. Balasubramanian, District
Revenue Officer; Praveen P. Nair, Hosur Sub Collector; P. Shanmugam,
secretary, Red Cross Society; and S. Kovalan, Public Relations Officer,
DIPR.
In Dharmapuri district, the committee was constituted on January 28 itself, much before the announcement on Lok Sabha elections.
A
release from K. Vivekanandan, District Election Officer, said that the
following were the members: Mr. K. Vivekanandan (chairman), P. Menaka,
R. Chandrasekaran, and Hanish Sekar, all Revenue Divisional Officers;
Programme Executive of All India Radio, P. Chinnasamy, president of
Tamil Sangam N. Rajendran; and A. Raghupathy, District Information
Officer.
Krishnagiri District Election Officer could not be contacted over phone for a clarification.
Directive
According
to an Election Commission directive if the Press Council of India is
not providing names of journalists to be included in the committee, the
District Election Officer can appoint either an independent senior
citizen or journalist, who is willing and who, in the opinion of the
DEO, is eligible in terms of background and record of neutrality.
This has been followed in Dharmapuri while constituting the cell.
