350 notices served in paid news cases

Election Commission has issued more than 350 show cause notices to various candidates in the fray in the paid news cases.
The EC has also seized more than Rs 216 crores in cash and above one crore litres of liquor across the country till date.
"We have served 368 notices in paid news cases till date," Akshay Raut, Director General of Election Commission, said here today.
He said out of total 368 notices, 198 were confirmed cases of paid news.
Paid news has been defined by Press Council of India as any news or analysis appearing in any media (Print and Electronic) for a price in cash or kind as consideration.

"We have engaged a mechanism to detect paid news cases during the elections," Raut said.

According to Press Council guidelines - news should be clearly demarcated from advertisements by printing disclaimers, should be strictly enforced by all publications. As far as news is concerned, it must always carry a credit line and should be set in a typeface that would distinguish it from advertisements.
Raut said Maharashtra leads the paid news cases with 66 show cause notices being served to the candidates, of these, four were confirmed after inquiry.
There were nine cases of paid news in Delhi, 60 in Uttar Pradesh and 41 in Haryana.

Election Commission has also seized more than Rs 216 crores in cash and above one crore litres of liquor across the country till date, the official said.
Maximum cash was seized from Andhra Pradesh (Rs 92 cr) followed by Maharashtra (Rs 24 cr) in the run-up to the elections.
Beginning from April 7, the nine-phase elections will end on May 12.
In its effort to curb the use of black money and illegal funds in the elections, the EC has deployed officers drawn from central revenue services like the Income Tax and Customs and Excise departments, in all the Lok Sabha constituencies and state Assembly seats where polling will be held.