Polls under neutral admn must

LUDHIANA, Nov 4: Reiterating his demand for a neutral administration in place before an election, chief election commissioner M.S. Gill toda...

LUDHIANA, Nov 4: Reiterating his demand for a neutral administration in place before an election, chief election commissioner M.S. Gill today proposed that once the Election Commission announced the elections, the elected government could voluntarily step down from the seat of power. This, he said, should happen as matter of course without it being seen as a reflection on the character of governance. Gill was speaking at a function organised by the Ludhiana Management Association here. He said that this would allow the administration headed by the governor to function impartially under the supervision of the EC. He added that in most cases, elections under incumbent governments lead to inordinate pressures on officials. There is a stress on coming back to power in any possible way, he stated.

The CEC said that though doubts had also been raised about the impartiality of governors, the structure of such an administration rendered it more amenable to supervision. He also suggested that all high constitutional authorities such as governors and chairmen of commissions, like the NHRC and the Minorities Commission, should be appointed by a composite committee as is done in the case of the Chief Vigilance Commissioner CVC.

Commenting on criminalisation of politics, he stated that the commission had proposed that anyone accused of crime leading to five years of imprisonment should be debarred from contesting elections, if after police investigations, the judge found a prima facie case was made out and ordered framing of charges.

He said that while the term of imprisonment could be debated, the five-year condition covers most serious crimes. If such a law was implemented, he said, it was likely to be upheld by the Supreme Court on the grounds of reasonable restriction.

The EC had already since last year, ensured that conviction by any court for the kind of offences listed in the law would debar candidates from contesting irrespective of whether an appeal was pending, he said.

Earlier, while speaking about the state of affairs in the state, said that while Punjab had enjoyed great success in the past, there was much to worry about today.

He stated that farmers were facing difficult times as holdings continued to become smaller and smaller. And hence the need to grow more and more out of less and less land to attain an income necessary for respectable life. If this could not be achieved, social tensions would return, he warned.

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Commenting on the state of the industry in Punjab and particularly in Ludhiana, he stated that it was necessary to opt for a strategy of high value, low volume, industries such as electronics, information technology and pharmaceuticals which did not ruin the land or poison the rivers and provide a decent standard of living. He added that otherwise Ludhiana would continue to remain what it is, a rich slum.