Calcutta, March 31: The Election Commission has ordered that all hoardings and banners put up across Bengal to highlight the government’s achievements be pulled down immediately.

Chief electoral officer Debashis Sen said he has already communicated the commission’s decision to chief secretary Amit Kiran Deb.

Hoardings and banners erected before the model code of conduct came into force on March 1 will also have to be pulled down.

Glow-signs and glitzy hoardings carrying slogans like “Krishi amader bhitti, shilpa amader bhobishyot (Agriculture is our base, industry our future)” and “Sanskritir rajdhanite boichhe shilpayaner hawa (Cultural capital is now witnessing an industrial resurgence)” had been put up at important intersections in the city and various district towns around December-January.

In some , the government had highlighted Bengal’s progress in IT and promised new-industry jobs to rural youths.

In the wake of Sen’s missive on the poll panel directive, the government said it has started removing such banners and hoardings. “Although they were put up long before March 1, we are complying with the EC directive,” a home department official said tonight.

He also revealed that the chief secretary, who is now in Delhi, has already sent the necessary instructions to the district magistrates.

The government chief whip, the CPM’s Rabin Deb, expressed surprise over the panel’s latest order. “The directive really surprises us? this has never happened before,” he said.

An official of the information department, which oversees the government’s publicity, said lakhs had been spent on the banners and hoardings.

The commission had earl-ier asked the government to ban graffiti and posters, among several other popular modes of campaign .

The chief electoral officer said the process to relocate polling booths within 200 metres of state and district party headquarters has begun.