Pitching for simultaneous general and state elections in the country, Information and Broadcasting Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Monday said frequent elections left little time for ensuring sustained focus on developmental work.
"We have frequent election festivals, which is a problem. There are three stages involved in the election process, which takes most of our time and leaves less time for developmental works and to sustain focus on them. We must have fixed tenures of (legislatures) and simultaneous elections," Naidu said after releasing the Annual Reference Year Book-India 2017 here.
Naidu said there was a need to reform the electoral system to implement simultaneous elections.
"The country has to go in that direction and forge a consensus. There is nothing political in it," the minister said.
He inaugurated a digital library created by the ministry on the occasion.
Naidu emphasised on curtailing the use of black money as part of electoral reforms.
More From This Section
He also defended the November 8 demonetisation.
--IANS
spk/tsb/bg