Mumbai: The Pune district administration has ordered removal of all hoardings featuring images of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from petrol pumps, state transport buses, bus stands and railway stations in view of the model code of conduct (MCC) coming into force for the October 21 state Assembly polls.
Citing a letter received from the chief electoral officer of Maharashtra, the Pune district administration issued a circular to election officers in this regard on September 24.
The circular, signed by an officer of the rank of deputy collector who is also the coordination officer for the district, said that hoardings bearing Mr Modi's photos should be removed from petrol pumps, state transport buses, bus stands, railway stations and municipal corporation buses.
It also asked election officers to submit a report to the district administration.
The order comes after the Maharashtra Congress wrote to the Election Commission (EC), demanding removal of the PM’s photos from petrol pumps, public places and vehicles in view of the MCC coming into force since Saturday.
On Monday, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Secretary Sachin Sawant (MPCC), while addressing the press, had said that while political banners were being removed by the administration, posters of only Opposition parties and not Mr Modi were being removed. He had demanded that all these posters be removed immediately.
He had questioned that if the MCC was for everyone, why was the administration taking action only against posters of Opposition parties.
“I was expecting that after announcement of the elections, the EC will give order to remove all these posters but it didn’t happen. Eventually, I had to write a letter,” Mr Sawant had said.
