Railway zones ordered to remove political advertisements
In a letter to all railway zones, Railway Board Chairman VK Yadav has asked to remove all kinds of political advertisements from railway premises. The order by the Railway board comes ahead of the general elections after various instances of violation of the model code of conduct recently came to light.
"Dear GMs/DRMs, any advertisement having photograph of any political leader on railway ticket, any other railway stationery, railway coaches, railway stations, any other railway premises should be immediately removed and advertising agency should be suitable informed," the message read.
Few days before, the railways had issued a clarification as to why tickets issued to passengers had photographs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after poll code had come into force.
Just two days ago, a tea cup bearing the BJP's election campaign slogan "main bhi chowkidaar" created a furore.
The Railways have been asked to explain violation of the model code of conduct. It has also been asked to explain the person responsible for the tea cups carrying the "chowkidar" slogan, the Election Commission sources said.
"Reports that tea has been served in cups labelled as ''main bhi chowkidar'' have been investigated. This was without any prior approval of IRCTC. Explanation has been sought from Supervisor/Pantry Incharges over lack of devotion to duty. One lakh fine has been imposed on the service provider. Show cause notice has also been served to the service provider for this misconduct," IRCTC had said in a statement on Friday.
