Thursday, December 13, 2012

Day after going on air, NaMo Gujarat hits turbulence


Amid complaints from a number of people that they were not able to watch NaMo Gujarat, the TV channel that went on air Thursday, District Collector Vijay Nehra today said he had not issued any orders to take the channel off air.
Nehra also said there was no such direction to him from the Election Commission.
Officials from Gujarat Telelink Private Limited, which provided the service for NaMo channel, were not available for comment.
Nehra said he had held a meeting with cable operators and FM radio operators to explain to them about the model code of conduct as also the media certification and monitoring committee (MCMC) to regulate the advertisements as per guidelines of the Election Committee in pursuance of the Supreme Court orders.
MCMC has already collected rate cards for advertisements of different newspapers, magazines, TV channels and radio to ensure that the candidates were not able to hide their expenditure.
He said each candidate is allowed an expenditure of Rs 16 lakh only, adding that there was no limit on expenditure made by the party.