MARGAO
With election banners making its presence felt in some of the Zilla Panchayat constituencies, election officials on Monday cracked a whip with flying squads deployed to pull down the same.
Election officials are also believed to have constituted a panel to keep a tab on candidates carrying out campaigning on social media, with senior election officials saying campaigning on the ground or on social media is banned for the ensuing election.
In fact, no sooner the district administration constituted the flying squads for Salcete taluka, these were deputed in the constituencies of Velim and Davorlim to bring down the election banners.
Election officials pointed out that since electioneering for the ensuing polls had ended in March last, when the ZP polls were scheduled on March 22, there’s no question of permitting the candidates to campaign again in the run-up to the polls.
Taking serious cognizance of election banners coming up in the constituencies of Velim and Davorlim, sources said the Returning Officers Jyoti Kumari and John Fernandes respectively deputed the flying squads to these two places to bring down the banners.
The flying squad is expected to once again make its presence felt in the Davorlim ZP constituency on Tuesday to remove the remaining banners.
Returning Officer John Fernandes informed that since the poll campaign had already ended as per the schedule drawn up for the March 22 election, there’s no question of allowing the candidates to campaign again.
“The flying squads have been given clear instructions to pull down all the poll banners. We expect the squads to raze down the banners by Tuesday,” John added.
