Patiala: Cinema owners and managers are being booked for violating the election code

The Punjab Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) intervened, and on Monday, the police in this place filed a formal complaint (FIR) for violating the code of conduct against the owners and management of Prime Cinema as well as the person in charge of Qube Cinema.

Giving more details, CEO Sibin C announced today that his office had received a complaint on April 6 from an RTI activist about a flagrant breach of the code of conduct because promotional video advertisements featuring the Chief Minister and the state government logo were playing in theaters all over the state.

After receiving notice of the complaint, the CEO contacted Patiala DC, which oversees Prime Cinema in Rajpura, the Secretary of the Punjab government’s public relations department, which releases orders for all state government advertisements to different agencies, and all DC-cum-DEOs in the state to find out whether or not these government advertisements are currently shown in any theater in the state.

The CEO said that as a result, on April 6, a flying squad visited the theater and a notice was given to Paramjit Singh, manager of Prime Cinemas. “Thereafter, the case was brought before the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee, Patiala, as it was primarily related to the display of advertisements in cinemas,” he added.

The Patiala police filed a case against the owners and managers of Prime Cinema as well as the representatives, manager, and person in charge of Qube Cinema on April 8 in accordance with the committee’s recommendations. The CEO said that the CEO office in Punjab forwarded a report to the Election Commission of India for more guidance in this area.