Expressing dissatisfaction over the functioning of the electronic voting machines (EVM) during the recent Lok Sabha elections, the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) has urged the Election Commission (EC) to scrap the EVMs and re-introduce the old ballot box system during next elections.
Addressing presspersons here on Saturday, G.K. Mani, PMK president, said the EVMS were far from being tamper-proof and that it was one of the reasons for the victory of the ruling AIADMK during the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls.
“Soon the party would move the apex court,” Mr. Mani added.
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He also called for declaring all 22 languages in the VIII schedule of the Constitution, including Tamil, as official languages and “thus put an end to the Hindi imposition controversy.”
Reacting to an allegation that PMK indulged in caste-based politics, Mr. Mani said, “the allegations are baseless. PMK is a party striving to bring the minorities and the backward into the mainstream by ensuring that they are properly represented in various fronts.”
On the Mullaiperiyar dam issue, the PMK president asked the Kerala government to comply with the Supreme Court order to raise the water storage level in Mullaperiyar dam up to 142 feet for the benefit of farmers in State.
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The party also demanded compulsory Tamil for all students from primary education level to higher secondary in all schools across the State, inclusion of moral value in school syllabi, redressal of drought and inflation in the state and action against private sugarcane mills that refused to pay the sugarcane price fixed by the State government to cane farmers among other things.
Referring to a recent government data, Mr. Mani said that several households in the State did not have access to toilets.
“Around 20,000 anganwadis in the State do not even have basic facilities such as toilets and kitchen. The situation is worse than Bihar. The State government must take steps to construct toilets,” he demanded.