JAIPUR, Mar 24: Chier Election Commissioner VS Sampath has favoured a full fledged law for transparency and regulation of functioning of political parties.
Speaking at the concluding session in 9th annual conference on Electoral and Political Reforms, Mr Sampath said, “There is a grave need of a full-fledged law to administer the functioning of Political Parties.”
The CEC said it should also ensure transparency and more internal democracy in the functioning of the parties.
Work on evolution of an ideal draft for the Bill that began by noted jurists and legal experts a couple of years ago is in progress, he informed.
In his speech, Mr Sampath covered the issues concerning the current electoral and political system in the country.
He conveyed that after successfully countering the menace of booth capturing and muscle power, ECI was now devising and implementing extensive plans to curb the evil of money-power in the polls. The CEC also talked about the Expense Monitoring Committees, Video Surveillance Teams, Static Flying Squads, the existence of a shadow register maintained by the Commission that keeps detailed accounts of the expenses of a contesting candidate in a constituency.
He also stated that under current laws, the Commission has no power to de-register political parties, though the recognition of their status as national or state did depend on their electoral performance.
Other issues he touched upon were incomplete filing of contesting candidate’s affidavit, de-criminalisation of politics, NRI voting and spending of political parties.
The two-day conference, organised by Association of Democratic Reforms(ADR) and National Election Watch alongwith some NGOs, was inaugurated by Magsaysay awardee social activist and National Advisory Council member Aruna Roy yesterday.
The second day today began with motivating tales of individuals belonging to the deprived and neglected segments of rural Rajasthan,who after getting disturbed by the rampant corruption around them in Panchayats, successfully fought Panchayat Elections and have become Sarpanches without spending any money.
The stories included of Kalu Ram who won his panchayat election by spending merely Rs 695 and defeated the opponents who disbursed lakhs of rupees.
Another inspiring story was narrated by Kamla Bai who defeated a candidate from the family that had been winning Sarpanch elections since independence.
Gyarsi Bai from the most impoverished ‘Gariya’ community won her panchayat election and freed the bonded labour belonging to her community and also freed agricultural land from the upper-caste people without violence.
Each one of these individuals narrated their achievements with regard to the regular disbursement of MNREGA money to the villagers, correction of MNREGA master rolls and regular social audit of the Panchayat funds. (UNI)
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