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N E W S  L E T T E R

October 31, 2001

 

 

Editor’s Note

Dear friends,

 

It has been our endeavour to keep you informed about the various activities being taken-up by Lok Satta and their progress.

While the Lok Satta movement is gaining momentum on various issues, it is a matter of great pride that within a short span of time it has met with remarkable success on its core issue of electoral reforms.

Lok Satta approached the Election Commission (EC) with the compelling findings of the survey, and the Commission’s response was encouraging. The EC agreed in principle with our suggestion of making the local post offices as nodal agencies for voter registration. This move will in one stroke not only correct registration flaw, but will also make the process more open and accessible to citizens. Right now the procedure is sound on paper, but is inaccessible and ineffective in reality.

The survey and the EC’s decision are important landmarks in the evolution of Indian democracy. This is the first vital step towards making our elections fair and vibrant. Henceforth, voters’ lists will be on display at the post office, and available for sale across the counter. The statutory forms for inclusion or deletion of names will be available at the post office. Lok Satta also suggested that the applications should be received by the post office and forward to registration authorities. The EC felt that for the time being availability of voters’ lists and forms at post offices should be ensured.

This is a classic case of meaningful civil society intervention leading to tangible and durable institutional improvements. This reinforces Lok Satta’s faith that collective and informed assertion, and professional, insightful work do lead to measurable and vital reforms.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

G Pratibha Rao

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Media Workshop on Right to Information

Lok Satta launched a statewide campaign for ‘Right to Information’(RTI) in Hyderabad on 26th August 2001.  As part of its advocacy for bringing a legislation to enforce the citizen’s RTI, Lok Satta has conducted a one day workshop with prominent media persons, jurists, activists and political parties participating.  Justice Jeevan Reddy, Chairman Law Commission released the Right to Information draft Bill and inaugurated the workshop.  Pamphlets in English and Telugu outlining the importance of the bill and its salient features and a brochure on RTI were also released. (Lok Satta prepared a draft Bill after meticulous study and wide consultations- please refer March/April 2001 issue of Lok Satta Times.)

Lok Satta has strongly advocated the legislation of RTI not only as an instrument of accountability but also to increase transparency in the decision-making process and to check corruption and abuse of power.  Upon drafting the Bill, Lok Satta has widely circulated the draft among various sections of civil society, bureaucrats, politicians, jurists and media and invited their comments.  The draft Bill has been refined based on the inputs received from various sections.

Lok Satta is conducting workshops on RTI across Andhra Pradesh in different districts, with district officials, prominent citizens and the local media participating.  The objective of these workshops is to encourage extensive debate among the active elements of society and at the same time educate, enable and empower  the people with this right.

All the participants at the Hyderabad meet were unanimous in their opinion that there was an urgent need for transparency and accountability on the part of the institutions engaged in delivering public services.  A law to the effect, they said would enable the citizen  to access all information that touches his/her daily life.

While deliberating on operationalizing of this right, participants also pointed out the obstacles which one is likely to encounter, such as increase in litigation, slowing down of decision making process etc. but also emphasised that large scale fraud in public spending which has become an everyday occurrence could easily be prevented if such a law is in place.

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Retreat Deliberates on Forming National Platform
Lok Satta organised a retreat in Hyderabad on the 18th and 19th of August with like minded organisations across the country in an effort to build a national platform for advocacy of electoral and governance reforms.Public Affairs Centre from Bangalore, Association of Democratic Reforms, Catalyst Trust from Chennai, AGNI from Mumbai, MKSS from Rajasthan and Citizen’s Action Group from Kolkata participated.  Also present were core members of Lok Satta and other prominent citizens with distinguished record in public service. These groups in various states of India have been involved in mobilizing active citizens in their respective states in a nonpartisan election watch movement on the lines advocated by Lok Satta.

 The theme of the meeting was ‘’Concern to Concerted Action’, which enabled the participants to discuss in detail, the possibilities of collaboration and working for a common agenda at the national level for elec toral and democratic governance reforms.  Also put  up for discussion were three important  issues : Collaboration in Election Watch and other citizens initiatives in various  states; Strategies for launching a national campaign for electoral funding reforms; Evolution of a networking mechanism for advocacy of specific electoral and governance reforms.

The group, after extensive and incisive deliberations came up with many creative measures to address the issues tabled at the meet.   Some of the suggestions included recording statements made by politicians at different  times and holding them accountable before elections.

 As the issue of political funding reform may not evoke a response in the citizenry Mrs. Pratibha Rao of Lok Satta opined that common issues like corruption should be made the rallying points to catch public attention. Others suggested changing the mind-set of people who accepted corruption as a way of life with media campaigns. Gerson Da Cunha of AGNI, Dr. N.Bhaskara Rao of Centre for Media Studies, Mr. Desikan and Dr. Krishna Swamy of Catalyst Trust came up with a working model to market the concept of clean corruption-free life. Also, identifying a set of criterion for working partnerships with NGOs and setting of long and short-term goals for the movement were suggested.  The group also discussed at length the strengths and weaknesses of different strategies and agreed to meet again with a concrete action plan. However most of the participating groups wanted Lok Satta to assume responsibility for networking and coordinating this campaign.

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Election Watch Successes  

Lok Satta’s relentless campaign for clean elections yielded great dividends in the run-up to the local panchayat polls in Andhra Pradesh. Lok Satta carried the fight on all fronts, including lobbying with legislators, public authorities, creating awareness through media, debates and by exposing the criminal background of the contestants etc.

The video capsules and wall posters exhorting voters to go out and vote and keep out the criminals evoked good response. The State Election Commission, (SEC), which launched the capsules fully endorsed them, and urged all collectors to have them aired in local cable channels.

Lok Satta’s initiatives to curb rigging also proved successful with  SEC agreeing to ensure automatic re-poll if 2 per cent tendered votes were polled in a polling station. SEC also gave orders for making available election expenditure returns filed by  candidates to people on demand for a small fee.

In another significant development, on pressure from Lok Satta, the state government drafted an ordinance preventing participation of persons with criminal record in local government elections. The draft prepared by Lok Satta was the basis of this ordinance. The ordinance, which was fully approved by the cabinet and the CM could not become law due to a technical snag which said, new  laws regarding elections cannot be made once the dates for elections are notified.

The highlights of this effort is Lok Satta’s ability to force the ruling party in the  state of A.P. to reject the candidature of a notorious faction leader, who had six murders to his credit, from becoming the zilla parishad chairman in Kurnool district. Despite tremendous  political pressure from within and outside the administration, the TDP president had to heed the call of Lok Satta. This was achieved in a span of 120 hours by launching a media blitz and people awareness campaigns. In the final analysis out of the 46 candidates with criminal records, only 20 got elected.

At the grass root level Lok Satta has compiled the required training literature and in the first phase will be working in Krishna, Medak and Mahaboobnagar districts for undertaking training programmes of women leaders from local governments. All these districts have women zilla parishad chairpersons.

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Citizen’s Charters in Andhra Pradesh

Thanks to the systematic Campaign being spearheaded by Lok Satta for the past few years, these Citizen’s Charters drew the attention of citizens as well as Government of A.P. The Government of Andhra Pradesh has enforced the implementation of Citizen’s Charters in all 109 municipalities in the State. Ever since the Government decided to implement them, Lok Satta has launched its next phase of campaign - effective implementation of the Charters. It has printed thousands of copies for distribution at its public meetings and “active citizens” training programmes. With effective implementation of Citizen’s Charters, we can see a role reversal. The citizen who was used to paying a bribe can now collect a compensation for everyday’s delay in receiving a service.

Lok Satta is encouraging the citizens to actively avail the facility to promote awareness of their rights and responsibilities of public servants. Lok Satta has been in the forefront of this activity in the state and is also sharing these insights with many civil society initiatives across the country. This according to Lok Satta is also a powerful tool for asserting the citizen’s right to information.

The Municipal Administration Secretary went on record stating that an amount of Rs.2000/- had been paid to the citizens as compensation for delayed services @ Rs.50/- per day (to be deducted from the concerned employee) in five municipalities within just a couple of weeks of the charters being made accessible to the public by Lok Satta. We can now hope for some perceptible change in the attitude and performance of the municipal employees.

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Training of Elected Women Representatives in Andhra Pradesh

As part of their project “Associating of Elected Women representatives of Local Governments”, the Singamma Sreenivasan Foundation has sought Lok Satta’s assistance in the training and empowerment of elected women representatives in AP. Following the elections to the local governments, Lok Satta has launched a well prepared programme. Training manuals and relevant literature has been put together for use in the forth- coming training programmes geared towards enhancing their skills as local government leaders. Women leaders in municipalities of these districts would also be involved in the programme. This programme will be implemented as a pilot project in the three districts of Krishna, Mahaboobnagar and Medak. 

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EC Considers Post Office as Nodal Agency 

As you are aware, Lok Satta has been engaged in detailed field studies of voter registration defects in India. Voter registration process, though impeccable on paper is inaccessible to the citizen and ineffective in correcting flaws. Our massive sample survey proved this. The survey covering 56 rural and urban polling station areas shows the problem is bigger than we had expected. The survey reveals that there are 15% errors in rural areas and 44.8% in urban areas. Maybe the magnitude of the problem can better be comprehended when we realize that the 500 votes in Florida that decided the US Presidency are only 1 out of 200,000 votes cast (.0005%).

 

Happily voter registration flaws can be corrected to a large extent by making the process open, verifiable and accessible to citizens.  Keeping in mind especially the rural populace, Lok Satta suggested that the citizen friendly neighborhood post office be made nodal agency in voter registration for (1) display and sale of voters’ lists for a nominal price (2) the availability of statutory application forms for adding or deleting names (3) receiving of applications and forwarding to the registration authorities. (4) making the results known to citizens. All this would reduce a lot of hassle and simplify the voter registration and correction of electoral rolls.

 

Lok Satta approached the Election Commission with the survey findings. The Election Commission accepted our findings and responded very positively to our suggestions.  They agreed in principle to use post offices as nodal agencies for citizen access to registration process. In the first phase, voter lists and forms for addition and deletion of names will be made available at the post offices. The Election Commission has also taken up intensive verification of electoral rolls all over India starting Nov 2001.

 

We are very proud to inform you that this pioneering survey that would have cost any professional agency Rs 75 lakhs to Rs One crore cost us only Rs 2 lakhs. Lok Satta designed and conducted the survey, analyzed and published it entirely with the support of in-house talent and volunteer support.

 

This survey and the Election Commission’s decision to make post offices nodal agency in voter registration are important landmarks in the evolution of Indian democracy.  It will be some years before the full impact of this will be felt.  And it requires enormous publicity and mobilization of civil society all over the country to use the opportunity to cleanse the electoral rolls.  With over 600 million registered voters and 15 languages, it is no small task. But this is a vital first step in the mammoth task of reforming our large democracy and making our electoral process genuinely fair and vibrant.

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Letter to Election Commission

May 22, 2001

Dear Mr.Lyngdoh,

 On behalf of Lok Satta, the nonpartisan people’s movement dedicated to electoral and governance reforms, we would like to express our deepest appreciation to the Election Commission for its impeccable conduct and impartial discharge of its constitutional obligations. The inaction and dilatory tactics of political parties and the parliament in legislating the much needed electoral reforms to curb the use of unaccountable money power, prevent criminalisation and eliminate polling irregularities made the Election Commission’s task very difficult. Despite these severe constraints, the Commission has been consistently acting with great dignity, integrity and impartiality. It is such impeccable conduct, which made the Election Commission a most credible and respected constitutional body in our large and diverse country.

 Given this background, it is extremely disappointing and sad to note the crass display of shockingly bad manners and political opportunism of an undignified kind by Ms. Mamata Banerjee in her recent vituperative attack on the Election Commission. Her criticism is both unjust and graceless and deserves to be condemned by all thinking citizens. Such intemperate and partisan conduct by senior politicians only helps to undermine our democracy and weaken constitutional bodies. We can do without further assaults on the foundations of our democracy.

In fact, in recent times the Election Commission acted with great vigor and sensitivity to enhance the purity of the electoral process. The 1997 guidelines of the commission on the scope of Section 8 (3) of the Representation of the people Act, 1951; the successful introduction of voter identity cards in various states, and the increasing use of electronic voting machines are three excellent examples of the Commission’s fair and effective functioning in the face of many obstacles wantonly created by political parties and governments. If any thing, we need to strengthen the Election Commission through ensuring greater autonomy and bringing in speedy electoral reforms through legislation. The Commission can only act within the four corners of the law; the legislature needs to act quickly and with foresight to reform our electoral process; only when such electoral reforms are in place can the polity be purged of unaccounted money power, criminalisation of politics, corruption and polling irregularities. The political parties and parliamentarians would do well to respond to people’s urges immediately and act with restraint, dignity and foresight to safeguard our democracy instead of besmirching the reputation of the Election Commission.

 Lok Satta appeals to all sections of the public to stand by the Election Commission and assert collectively to force the political system to respond to people’s urges to cleanse the Electoral process.  The people demand no more, and the nation deserves no less. We are confident that the Election Commission will continue to be an island of impartiality, constitutionalism and excellence in our troubled democracy.

 Thanking you,

 Yours sincerely,

 Justice A Lakshmana Rao,

Former Chief Justice of India, Allahabad High Court,

BPR Vithal,

Member, 10th Finance Commission

KR Venugopal,

Former Secretary to Prime Minister

 Jayaprakash Narayan

National Coordinator, LOK SATTA

Mr. J.M.Lyngdoh’s Response

 Thank you very much for your email of 22nd May and for strengthening the Election Commission in its resolve to do what is right.  But the Commission is also aware that there are many controllable aspects of the electoral system which are far from perfect- the Electoral Roll, for one.  And we are grateful that Dr.JayaPrakash Narayan of Lok Satta came here and detailed some of the electoral roll defects and the remedies, which we’re taking very seriously.

 Yours sincerely

 J.M. Lyngdoh

Chief Election Commissioner

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