New Delhi, Mar 09: The Election Commission today said it has asked the centre and the state governments to remove immediately all hoardings and advertisements which were still on display ''At the cost of the public exchequer'' and send compliance reports.
The directive has been issued in the form of general instructions, Deputy Election Commissioner A N Jha told reporters.
While putting up new hoardings and advertisements was violative of the model code of conduct, even continued display of such material impinged upon the code, he said. Asked whether any deadline had been set, he said they had been asked to comply with it as soon as possible. It could be 24 hrs or 48 hrs, he said in reply to a specific question.
Though the commission was not aware of the exact number of such hoardings, their number would be ''sizeable'' across the country, Jha said.
Bureau Report