The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Thakur seeks people’s cooperation to conduct free and fair polls

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 30, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Thakur seeks people’s cooperation to conduct free and fair polls

T.S. Ranganna

Political parties asked to campaign peacefully

All arrangements
to be made
for elections
Officials asked to assist the Election Commission of India

Governor Rameshwar Thakur

Bangalore: Governor Rameshwar Thakur on Thursday made an earnest appeal to all political parties and people to ensure a free and fair election to the 13th Legislative Assembly and to conduct the campaign peacefully.

In an exclusive interview to The Hindu, Mr. Thakur, who took over the reins of State administration for the second time in less than a month after the imposition of President’s Rule, said once the Election Commission of India announced the date or dates of elections to the Assembly, the State Government would make all arrangements for conducting the elections.

Mr. Thakur, who held a lengthy meeting with his three advisers P.P. Prabhu, S. Krishna Kumar and P.K.H. Tharakan on Thursday on various development and other issues, said that he had directed the senior officials of the departments such as Home and Revenue to assist the Election Commission in discharging its constitutional duties in the districts and at the booth-level. In a democracy, he said, elections should be held in an impartial manner.

He said that the parties and people were free to propagate their policies and programmes, but they could not create any hindrance to the legitimate activities of the people.

The police had been instructed to maintain law and order during the campaign.

Development works

About the tardy development works in the State and particularly bad roads in Bangalore, the Governor said that he would discuss the development programmes to be speeded up in the next four months with his advisers in the coming days. It is the duty of the bureaucracy to judiciously spend the resources made available by the Union and the State governments for improving the living condition of the people.

The Governor, who received a memorandum by a group of Bangaloreans headed by B.S. Srinivas urging him to reduce the penalty imposed by the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike on the owners of the unauthorised sites and buildings in and around the city, said that the decision was taken by an elected government. He promised that the executive committee would consider the issue and if feasible, the Government would take a decision. When his attention was drawn to the statement made by Chief Secretary P.B. Mahishi that he had asked the officials to start the budget preparing exercise for the year 2008-09, the Governor said that this would be discussed with his advisers.

His attention was drawn to the demand by Chairman of the Legislative Council B.K. Chandrashekar for taking the advice of the members of the Legislative Council on each department.

Mr. Thakur said that already the President had appointed three advisers and there was no need for further advisers.

However, he said that any citizen could meet him with suggestions for improving the administration.

‘Janata darshan’

Mr. Thakur said that he would meet the media every Saturday and interact with reporters on various issues. He said that the departments would be distributed among the advisers in a couple of days.

The Governor said he would hold the “Janata darshan” once a week.

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