The Election Commission (EC) is planning to impose a minimum deposit fee for the registration of political parties, to make the photo identity card (ID) a multipurpose card and to revoke the income-tax exemption which political parties now get under Section 77 of the Representation of the People Act.
Election commissioner G V G Krishnamurthy said that he wanted the minimum deposit to be Rs 15,000. Deputy election commissioner S Chatterjee wanted it to be Rs 25,000, he added, hinting at the shape of things to come. Besides paying, any party seeking registration should have at least a hundred founding members, he said.
Of the 603 political parties recognised and registered by the EC, only eight are national and 38 are state parties, he pointed out.
About 400 of these parties have not contested elections for even one assembly or Lok Sabha seat. Some of these parties are operating from servants quarters at North Avenue (where many MPs are housed), he said.
Chief election commissioner M S Gill and Krishnamurthy are thinking of asking the Union government to consider an amendment to the Constitution containing all these issues, besides having a provision for greater autonomy for the commission in matters of finance and administration.
Further, rule-making powers, now with the law ministry, should rest with the EC, to enable it to frame rules according to the demands of a situation, Krishnamurthy said.
The expenses of the commission and its secretariat should be charged to the Consolidated Fund of India so that the commission is not dependent on a government department, he said.
These proposals came out of the commissions day-long conference on Tuesday with electoral and chief electoral officers (CEOs) from states and Union territories, Gill said. He stressed that, though officers at the meeting backed these proposals unanimously, the commission had yet to take a decision.
Media time should be allotted for serious political parties, Gill suggested at the meeting, describing it as funding political parties by non transferable time-vouchers.
Krishnamurhty explained that, before taking a decision on these issues, the EC wanted to circulate its agenda to the people and to the leaders of various political parties to elicit their opinions. The detailed agenda, which would included the minutes of Tuesdays meeting and the suggestions made by state electoral officers, are to be sent to leaders of national and state political parties. The Commission is likely to meet these leaders some time in February, he said.
Krishnamurthy said that the state electoral officers sought an amendment in Section 159 of RPA, 1951, so that employees of banks and other public sector undertakings could also be deployed for poll duty.
This was the practice before the Supreme Court judgment prevented such deployment, he pointed out. The commission should also have control over the 48 lakh personnel employed for temporary election duty, he said.
The Commission favours intensive revision of electoral rolls after every five years instead of the present system of doing it every alternate year, besides making electoral rolls a fool-proof document of a voters identity, Krishnamurthy said.
The CEOs recommended that the ID cards may be issue with reference to the electoral rolls having January 1, 1996 as the qualifying date, he pointed out.
In addition to these, the EC also plans to recommend raising the election expenditure ceiling of a candidate from Rs 4.50 lakh to Rs 15 lakh for a Lok Sabha constituency and from Rs 1.50 to Rs 6 lakh for an assembly constituency, he added.
Agencies
ON BOARD PMS SPECIAL AIRCRAFT
Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda yesterday said that the United Front (UF) government was not averse to taking the advice of the Congress in formulating the 1997-98 Budget and other economic policies.
Gowda said that he would welcome the creation of any sub-committee of Congress leaders to interact with the Fronts steering committee, provided its members were nominated by Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) leader Sitaram Kesari and the partys floor leaders in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha.
The Prime Minister made these remarks on the nature of the Fronts ties with Congress, its main supporter from outside, during an informal chat with newsmen who had accompanied him on his week-long visit to West Bengal and Karnataka.
If the CPP leader, Congress leaders in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha can name leaders who will advise about the Fronts economic policies, budgetary proposals or the ninth plan, I am prepared to welcome it, Gowda said.
The Left parties and the Congress could give suggestions, but there would be practical difficulties in involving them in the Budget-making process, he said.
In this context, the Prime Minister said that he had consulted Manmohan Singh and Pranab Mukherjee on earlier occasions.
But, the finalisation of the Budget will be the prerogative of the Prime Minister and the finance minister, he added.
Asked whether he faced any threats of withdrawal of Congress support to his seven-month-old government, Gowda said that both Kesari and Sharad Pawar had made it categorically clear after becoming the CPP leader and Congress
leader in Lok Sabha, respectively, that there was no question of withdrawal of support.
The Prime Minister said, What more evidence you need about the stability of the United Front government after these leaders had given me categorical assurance? Gowda said that he had meetings with both these Congress leaders after they were elected to the parliamentary wing posts.
I am not worried about the sweeping remarks made by a section of the media about survival of my government, the Prime Minister said adding why do you bother about the survival of my government when there is not even a semblance of a threat.
Gowda asserted that neither the Congress nor the coalition partners in the Front had come in the way of decisions taken by his government since he assumed office in June last year.
The Prime Minister felt that there should be some working arrangement among all the political parties to tackle some of the basic issues like unemployment and poverty facing the country.
Post-mortem of the past is not going to help the country achieve the future goal, Gowda said adding that unhealthy competition by political parties to woo voters by making tall promises for short gains would take the country to economic bankruptcy. However, he did not name any party.
Gowda said that the vacancy for an election commissioner, following the elevation of M S Gill to the chief election commissioners post, will be filled up very soon.
During his hour-long talks with the newsmen touching upon various issues he had to tackle as the head of a 13-party coalition government, Gowda said that during the last seven months whatever major decisions taken were in the right direction. Until now, all decisions are taken unanimously. We may have to tolerate the criticism of some partners for carrying forward certain burden on our shoulders, he said. He said that his government was functioning as per the common minimum programme (CMP) drawn up by the UF steering committee.
At one stage, Gowda remarked, My misfortune is that nobody considers my views seriously, hinting that although he wanted to implement several welfare measures, he was not getting cooperation from the opposition.
Borrowings to bridge oil pool account deficit
Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda yesterday said that the government will resort to borrowings to bridge the mounting deficit of over Rs 12,500 crore in the oil pool account and added that a major economic package to boost the capital market will be announced in one week.
For the time being, only thing left is borrowings, Gowda said while reiterating that the Centre had not taken any decision to hike the prices of petroleum products to reduce the deficit.
I cannot say what is going to happen (on oil prices) in the next Budget or five to six months from now, Gowda said and added that the Union Cabinet has to be taken into confidence before a decision to hike petroleum products is taken.
Gowda said that the government was considering some of the suggestions made by the industrialists on December 31 to revive the capital market and to attract more foreign investments.
Where the government itself can take a decision, we will announce it. But, some of the issues that have to go before Parliament, we will indicate our mind, he said, adding that he wanted the fresh economic package to be announced before leaving for Davos on January 31 to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting.
Tapping black money as part of resource mobilisation, amending the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (Fera), withdrawal of the controversial minimum alternate tax (MAT), ending indiscriminate raids and removal of procedural hurdles in projects were among other demands made by the industrialists at their meeting.
Gowda said that the forthcoming economic policy decisions will have to be balanced in such a way that it did not increase inflation or the targeted fiscal deficit of five per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) while ensuring a seven per cent industrial growth at the same time.
The principal secretary, the cabinet secretary and top officials of the economic ministers have already been asked to expedite the concrete suggestions for the economic package.
Gowda sought the support of the people who had the capacity to mobilise resources to help the government in its hour of economic crisis. At the same time, political parties must also behave in such a way that they dont make commitments which might trigger economic bankruptcy.
Gowda also clarified that no decision has been taken on the privatisation of the insurance sector.
Gowda said, Economically strong people must be prepared to tolerate carrying certain burden on their shoulders to help the country compete with other industrialised nations.
He said that the proposed civil aviation policy is still under the consideration of the Union Cabinet.
Gowda said that the Rs 2,500-crore subsidy on phosphatic fertilisers announced by his government is expected to increase the foodgrain production from 185 million tonne in 1995-96 to 197 million tonne in 1996-97.
