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Negligible progress on poll reforms, RTI plea reveals
Thursday June 21, 2012 07:17:15 PM,
IANS
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New Delhi: Attempts
to push for poll reforms are yet to yield the desired results
despite an appeal by the Election Commission to the government, a
Right to Information (RTI) query filed by an activist has
revealed.
A response from the prime minister's office (PMO) to an RTI query
indicated that little had been done on barring candidates with
criminal records from contesting elections, ensuring financial
transparency and making public the audited accounts of candidates'
election expenses.
The RTI application, filed by activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal,
was related to the April 13 letter that then chief election
commissioner S.Y. Quraishi wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,
urging him to implement the delayed poll reforms.
Agrawal said Thursday that the government's response showed that
the political leadership was not serious about pushing poll
reforms.
The PMO reply to Quraishi's letter said: "With a view to
comprehensive electoral reforms, a core committee was constituted
on Oct 1, 2010. Seven regional consultations have been held and an
all-party dialogue is under consideration. On the basis of the
inputs received in these consultations, legislative process, as
may be considered necessary, will be initiated by the government
in due course."
"The electoral scenario of the country has been continuously
changing, it has necessitated reforms of electoral law on several
occasions. The electoral reforms is a continuous and the on-going
process can be carried out through consensus amongst the political
parties," it said.
"Political leaders can never be serious about change in the
election system because in its present form it is tailor-made to
suit the wrong persons reaching the legislature. Effective
poll-reforms and strict rules for those in legislature are of
prime importance than the much-talked about Lokpal bill," said
Agrawal.
Quraishi also stressed on providing protection to all the three
election commissioners to insulate them from any kind of pressure.
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