Candidates to get EC notices for planting paid news stories

The Election Commission has taken suo moto cognisance of seven cases of paid news and is all set to issue notices to the concerned candidates soon, official sources said here today.
"We have taken suo moto cognisance of seven cases of paid news and will issue notices to the concerned candidates, asking them why expenses incurred by them to get favourable news published should not be included in their poll expenditure," District Electoral Officer and Collector Akash Tripathi told reporters here today.
A member of the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) said these seven cases were associated with BJP's Sumitra Mahajan, Congress candidate Satyanarayan Patel and independent candidate Praveen Kumar Ajmera.

Tripathi said the administration has set a target to achieve 65 per cent turnout in Indore and has installed air coolers and cold drinking water systems at polling stations to achieve this.
In 2009, Indore witnessed 50.6 per cent polling.