The Lok Satta Party has pitched for direct election of Chief Minister as part of electoral reforms and appealed to all the political parties in the country to work towards replacing the present electoral system heavily loaded in favour of bagging key posts.
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, party national president Jayaprakash Narayan advocated direction election of Chief Minister for the good of the State. He pointed out that one might spend Rs.10 crore or Rs.50 crore to become an MLA or MP but it is unlikely that one would spend Rs.5,000 crore to get elected as Chief Minister.
Now that the elections are over, he said all the parties must work towards proportional representation to protect democracy from collapsing. Under the present dispensation the competent are not getting elected and those elected with money and liquor are not delivering, he reasoned. He also said time has come to break the vicious cycle of money, inducements during elections and safeguard democracy.
He pointed out that all the parties made tall promises during the polls by ignoring the primary responsibility of providing quality education, health care and basic facilities to the common man. “By ignoring basic tenets of democracy, political parties have done great injustice to people,” he said.
The parties in Telangana announced loan waiver and other temporary sops but failed to announce a comprehensive plan on how they proposed to provide basic amenities, generate employment and tackle power crisis, he said. Dr. Narayana said empowering local governments by way of devolution of powers and resources holds key.
Expressing concern, he said the youth face a bleak future if far-reaching reforms are not carried out.
