Mumbai: Contractor pulled up for telecast of CM Eknath Shinde's rally on local trains

Commuters watch the telecast of CM Eknath Shinde’s Dussehra rally on a local train on Wednesday

Live telecasting Chief Minister Eknath Shinde's Dussehra rally on the LED TV screens inside local trains for a few minutes has landed the contractor in trouble. The matter came to light after a commuter highlighted the same on social media, with Opposition leaders calling it takeover of a national asset for publicity. mid-day had reported on this.

The Western Railway on Friday said they have penalised the contractor and have also issued strict guidelines on what can be screened inside train compartments. While the quantum of the penalty was not clear till Friday evening, WR officials said the contractor had been reprimanded.

Railway officials, however, said that the rally was shown in violation of the terms of agreement with the contractor and was stopped immediately. The rally was telecast for around 10-15 minutes and was stopped immediately after it was brought to the notice of the authorities. Following this, the contractor was summoned, and action initiated.

Also Read: Mumbai: CM Eknath Shinde's Dussehra rally creates grand mess on MU campus

About a year ago, 20 EMU local trains on WR were fitted with LCD TV screens.

As per the deal, the screens are to display commercial advertisements as well as railway or public related information in the ratio of 70:30 in time and space and there can be political input.

This initiative has fetched railways "non-fare revenue" to the tune of R65,00,000 in a year. As the contract tenure is of five years, the zonal railway is expected to get around Rs 3.25 crore revenue from it.