Here is a novel way of reforming our political / electoral system with ideas borrowed from other countries. Why should the entire population vote for corporators, MLAs and MPs? Their areas of concern are different and we need suitable people to vote for people required to manage those concerns. So while everyone will vote for corporators / panchayats, only those who pay taxes of say over Rs 10,000 will vote for MLAs and only those who pay more than Rs 50,000 will vote for MPs. Also the number of MPs per state should be in parity with revenue generated. Ditto for MLAs, with district revenues determining the number of seats. We can also stipulate that those claiming below poverty line (BPL) benefits cannot vote for MLAs and MPs. We will then know the actual number of poor in country.
How do we rid cities of slums? In the US, Washington DC has no representation in the senate and only has a non-voting member in the House of Representatives. So New Delhi should have no MPs or MLAs and no capitals should have MLAs. The municipal corporations can take care of everything with an elected mayor. With good bijli, sadak and pani, more than 90 per cent of the aam aadmi’s concerns will be addressed. All excess professional netas will have to move out and along with them they will take the voting masses in the slums which are continuously regularised to ensure votes. This may also force the capitals to move out of big cities into smaller towns — take a look at Washington, Canberra, Wellington and Ottawa which are not the number one cities of their countries. In our own country we have an example — Gujarat, whose capital Gandhinagar is away from all business and commercial centres. Maybe that’s why it is the most progressive state.
T R Ramaswami, Mumbai
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