General Observer visits MCMC, c-vigil and complaint cells; interacts with MCMC staff deployed to keep a watch on election related activities in print & electronic media

Ludhiana, May 14, 2024: The General Observer for Ludhiana parliamentary constituency, Divya Mittal, IAS visited the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) on Monday. She directed the staff to intensify monitoring on social media platforms and to keep a close watch on the activities of print and electronic media related to the elections.

Accompanied by Additional District Election Officer Major Amit Sareen and Assistant Commissioner (Under Training) Kritika Goyal, the General Observer interacted with the MCMC staff to gather information on issues such as pre-certification, surveillance on paid news, and activities of candidates on social media platforms, including WhatsApp channels. The General Observer emphasized that all electioneering activities and advertisements, especially on news websites and web portals should be closely monitored by the social media surveillance teams.

The General Observer stated that no candidate could release any advertisement on social media platforms without getting its content approved by the committee. She also emphasized the need to track the authentic social media accounts as informed by the candidates at the time of filing nominations, so that necessary action could be initiated in case of any violation, as per the ECI directives. It was also highlighted that candidates and political parties should include all expenditures on campaigning, including advertisements on social media, payments made to companies and websites for carrying advertisements, and expenditures on campaign-related works on social media.

General Observer Divya Mittal also emphasized upon the need to scrutinize news content related to political parties and candidates in newspapers, so that suspected paid news could be traced and reported. The Observer also inspected cases of pre-certification of political publicity material and advertisements given by the candidates in different assembly segments.

Later, the Observer visited C-vigil and complaint and monitoring cells, and took stock of the complaints received so far. She also inquired about the functioning of the cells from the concerned staff.