new delhi apprehending increased use of money power and paid news in the forthcoming state elections chief election commissioner cec nasim zaidi has requested the centre to take urgent measures including considering an ordinance to designate the malpractices as specific crimesthe ec has recommended the centre to make distribution of money among voters by candidates their agents and supporters a cognizable offence under the criminal procedure code so that offenders could be arrested without bail he suggested hiking the jail term for filing a false affidavit from six months to two years which would bar a candidate from contesting for six yearssuch is the dimension of the cash menace that zaidi suggested enacting a law through the ordinance routeif there is a will it can be done through ordinance he said drawing a comparison with booth capturing which was rampant before 1990 zaidi said bribery had assumed similar proportions and needed to be dealt with an iron hand he said the ec was undertaking a clausebyclause review of the representation of the people actthe cec said paid news was another problem at present we determine which news item is paid news and add the expenses incurred to the candidates expenses which is rs 75 lakh for lok sabha elections and rs 28 lakh for assembly elections but with most candidates reporting poll expenses that are only 50 of the limit we need to deal with the problem by making it an offence under the rp act zaidi saidthe cec said filing of false affidavits was rampant despite candidates being mandated by the supreme court in the association of democratic reforms case in 2002 to declare their antecedents relating to crime education and wealth it is a very serious problem he saidbut the maximum punishment for filing a false affidavit is only six months it should be made two years so as to make the candidate filing false affidavit suffer disqualification zaidi saidthe cec also said there were instances from up and maharashtra where elected representatives were not unseated even after conviction and a sentence for over two years and completed their term as the assemblies concerned did not notify their seats as vacant it is a clear violation of the sc judgmentyet the ec could do nothing to hold elections since the assembly did not declare their seats vacant he saidthe ec has asked chief electoral officers of states to collect reports from each political party on the contributions received by them