THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Election Commission is preparing a databank of elected representatives of local bodies in the State.

A comprehensive list of both public and personal data of all 22,554 members of five corporations, 53 municipalities, 14 district, 152 block and 991 grama panchayats are being collected and compiled by the commission in what is being described as the first such initiative in the State.

The data thus compiled will be posted on the commission's website where the electorate is free to access the same.

The basic objective behind this voluntary effort from the commission is to make the administrative mechanism more transparent and accountable to the public.

Members of the public will now be in a position to assess the credentials and performance of their elected representatives who have been entrusted to handle a lion's share of the Plan funds apportioned for development ventures.

Questionnaire drawn up

The commission has drawn up a questionnaire and forwarded the same to the local body institutions for members to provide all details pertaining to their public as well as personal life.

Starting with name, address and marital status, the questionnaire proceeds to seek certain other interesting information too. So each member will now be expected to specify his or her dietary habits.

The members will also be asked to declare their political affiliations and linguistic proficiency, and state whether they are the sole earning members of the family, on the director board of cooperative organisations, involved in criminal cases or tried in any such cases earlier.

Yet another notable feature is that the members would have to declare their financial assests. If they have availed themselves of any loan from any financial institution and defaulted the payments, such details have to be included in the proforma.

It is expected that once the members publish their financial position, they will be more wary in their dealings while in office. This is also expected to help check the tendency to amass wealth, and prevent corruption at pivotal positions at the grass roots level.

Along with such personal information, the members should also state the number of times they have run for civic elections and the positions they held, if any, in the local self-government institutions. Such details are expected to help the public make an informed choice by assessing overall performance of members and their political career over the years.

During the last civic elections, the CPI(M) had decided not to field sitting members who have contested thrice in a row. Many other parties have now started thinking along similar lines with a view to infusing young blood in politics.

With the decentralisation of powers, the task of a panchayat member or a municipal councillor has become more demanding.

The notification of the required educational qualifications will expectedly attract more educated youth to seriously think of entering politics. This will in turn help raise the level of accountability expected of the members.

Civic bodies in five districts are already learnt to have turned in 90 per cent of the inputs required by the commission. The entire work is expected to be completed within a month, sources said.

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