TEAM HERALD
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PANJIM: NGO Friends of Good Governance (FOGG), has demanded suspension of collectors of both districts, Additional Collector (North) Narayan Sawant, and Deputy Collector (
Also, FOGG has claimed it will file a FIR against the officers in question at a press conference on Saturday.
The FOGG has alleged that its hoardings on voters’ education were though not targeted at any particular party, were brought down. There was also no written order from Election Commission of India (EC).
Giriraj Pai Vernekar, Secretary FOGG addressing a press conference on Saturday, here said North Goa Collector Mihir Vardhan had even refused to give them a hearing saying he had no time to speak to the public and was busy with election.
However, he was compelled to call us when we complained against him to Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi during his
“The same collectors who were either arrogant or refused to look into our complaints, are today suggesting alternatives to get the hoardings ‘approved’,” charged Vernekar.
FOGG has also demanded disbanding of the district level certification and monitoring committee alleging that it has over reached its authority.
The contents of the hoarding on voter education were referred to District Level Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) on directive of the chief electoral officer. The MCMC had a meeting on February 3 and after deliberation took a decision to reject the contents of all hoardings.
FOGG claimed that MCMC was constituted to look into charges of paid news and under EC directive its purpose was to examine paid news cases.
FOGG Secretary says they will now take a legal recourse for seeking compensation for causing them loss on their ads.
“We lost our money due to loss of days of publicity due to their decision,” claimed FOGG Secretary.
FOGG also pointed out that EC in its communication on February 3, had intimated Chief Electoral Officer,
