It is known to everybody that after political leaders are taken in the Government, they are allotted Government accommodation besides a number of other perks. Elected representatives of the people, whether inside or outside the Government are given Government accommodation besides other facilities and public exchequer bears the expenses because they are supposed to do public service.
However, the question is whether these elected representatives, after they are accommodated in Government quarters behave as responsible occupants of Government accommodation and make regular payment of services like electricity, water, telephone, sanitation etc. Do they regularly pay for these services or not. If they do not pay what measures are adopted by the Government to recover the arrears on these counts? Yes, we know the departments concerned issue notices to the defaulters among them by way of reminders but taking negative advantage of their official or public position, they fail to pay for the services and the arrears are accumulating against them. Reminders make no impact because they think they are above law. This is almost become general phenomenon in the country.
This matter was brought before the Delhi High Court which ordered the Election Commission to ensure that the defaulting candidates as former ministers or MPs/MLAs had cleared their service bills before submitting their nomination papers for fighting election. Consequently, the EC has decided to enforce this court order in letter and in spirit. After its proposal to bar candidates from contesting for failure to clear utility dues, the Election Commission now wants a similar treatment to be meted out to the political parties Many political parties have been provided Government space which entails rent under defined rules. Some political parties have not cleared the dues including rent and allowed these to accumulate in huge quantity. In order to streamline the matter, the EC has decided to invite political parties to discuss the matter and find out a way. After all, no Government will allow the public money to be misplaced. It has to be accounted for. It needs to be mentioned that all the seven national parties — the BJP, Congress, NCP, CPI, CPI-M, BSP and TMC — and major regional parties like the SP and AIADMK have been given Government accommodation in the national capital for which they have to pay rent
It is good to call the political parties and discuss the matter with them. However, the EC has to make it clear to them in no ambiguous terms that service charges have to be paid perhaps along with interest. If ordinary tax payer is punished for not paying tax in time and fines are imposed, why should the elected representatives or their parties escape scot free? We are confident that the EC will put down foot and will refuse to accept any plea from the defaulters for exemption or some sort of concession because that will make a very bad precedent and the credibility of the EC will be harmed.
This kind of non observance of Government rules is also to be found in our State with the ex-Ministers and public men and not only with the sitting MLAs or Ministers. In these columns we have touched on this issue several times but there is nonchalant attitude towards these irregularities. Many of the MLAs who have retired long back have not as yet cleared the outstanding dues so far. We would highly appreciate if the PDD, Waterworks, JMC and other organizations issue details of persons and their outstanding payments to bring the matter to the public domain. How the Government will react to this gross irregularity and wanton misuse of public trust will be a litmus test for the Government to prove publicly that it stands by the fundamental principle that all are equal before the law.
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