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October
31, 2001
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
Top
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.
Top
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.
Top
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.
Top
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.
Top
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.
Top
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.
Top
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
Top
FOUNDATION
FOR DEMOCRATIC REFORMS,
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