BOMB IT

KOLKATA: Political parties won’t have it easy this time. The state election office has set up 120 squads throughout the state to ensure that your walls are not defaced without adhering to rules.

Each of these teams has three members and these teams will go around the city and in the districts checking walls themselves, as the Election Commission has decided to take up cases on a suo motu basis, chief electoral officer Debashis Sen said.

Already swinging into action, the squads have gone around removing poll graffiti written from walls on Friday itself. In Alipore, a squad saw a private wall with graffiti. On inquiry, they found it had been defaced without taking the owner’s consent. On finding this, the squad has directed the political party Trinamool Congress to get permission within three days from the owner. If it is not obtained within three days, then a suo motu FIR would be filed by the squad.

Not just in the city, the squads have also starting acting in the districts. A complaint was received in Asansol, where a CPM candidate’s poster on a wall of the Asansol-Durgapur Development Authority (ADDA) was found. A squad went and visited the spot and asked the party to remove the graffiti, since a government building cannot be used for writing graffiti. Meanwhile, the Commission has also noticed a programme of a private company which Forward Bloc minister Naren De had attended, which could have flouted the model code of conduct.

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