The Hindu : Kerala News : Civic chiefs: direct poll unlikely

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

Civic chiefs: direct poll unlikely

Staff Reporter

EC for consensus on the issue

MULANKUNNATHUKAVU (THRISSUR): The State Election Commissioner, N. Mohandas, has said that direct election of local body chiefs is not likely to be introduced in the coming polls.

He was speaking to presspersons at the Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA) here after attending a workshop on "Electoral reforms in local Governments'' on Tuesday.

Unfeasible

Mr. Mohandas said the State Government had observed that direct election might not be feasible this time.

However, the Government had agreed to the introduction of electronic voting machines.

But they could not be used at the grama panchayat level as each voter had to cast three votes. Hence, ballot papers would be used at that level.

Open mind

Earlier, inaugurating the workshop, the Election Commission (EC), N. Gopalaswamy, suggested that issue of conducting direct election of local body chiefs be approached with an open mind.

He said efforts must be made to evolve a consensus on the issue among officials and political leaders, based on the experiences of the past 10 years.

Devolution of power

Mr. Gopalaswamy said ensuring transparency by providing the right to information to the public was the only way to prevent the misuse of power at various levels.

There must be devolution of powers to the lower levels, but at the same time, there must also be steps to ensure that it would not lead to `powerfulness.' This could be achieved only by ensuring the right to information of the public.

`Selfish' feeling

The State Planning Board member, Philipose Thomas, said he was in favour of direct election of the chiefs of local bodies. According to him.

"It is the `selfish' feeling of the MLAs emerging out of the notion that there should be none other than themselves who are directly elected which prevented the introduction of direct election of the local body chiefs in the State.''

Greater stability

Direct elections would lead to greater stability and would contribute to the evolution of mature and competent local-level leadership.

The Secretary of the Local Self Government Department, S.M. Vijayanand, said delimitation of local body wards should be conducted only after every census. Similarly, reservation of wards for women and tribal people should continue for at least 10 years and should not be altered every five years.

The KILA Director, P.P. Balan, welcomed the gathering.

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