Paid news not an issue in Kerala: CEO

With camapigning for the April 10 Lok Sabha polls advancing, a top election officer today said paid news phenomena was not an issue in Kerala.
Even though paid news is a gray area, Kerala is a state where paid news is not a great threat, Nalini Netto, Chief Electoral Officer, Kerala, told reporters here.
On the law and order front, she said pre-poll situation was peaefull except for minor incidents of clashes. As part of security arrangements, 45 companies of Central forces had already arrived in the state.
Another ten more companies of the Force have been requestioned to assist the state police in poll arrangements, she said.

More than 80 incidents of violence during poll campaign due to political rivalry were reported so far in which 57 persons have been injured.
Nearly 1.50 lakh officials including 14,000 women would be deployed for poll duties in the state.
State has a total electorate of 2,42,51,942 voters after the completion of enrollement in which women outnumber men with 1,25,70,439 female.
Voters in the age-group of 18-19 years come to around 5,56,702 while those between 20-60 years stood at 2,01,81,660.