A virtual meeting of the “Thinkers’ Club” was held on Saturday on the theme 'unbiased and unobstructed election is a prelude to a transparent democracy.'
The chief speaker of the meet was former senior advisor to the office of the Election Commissioner, Bhagaban Prakash. He discussed various points from his experience with the office of the EC.
According to him, if a person is standing from two constituencies gets elected from both the places, he resigns from one of the constituencies. A byelection is held to seat he vacates. But the whole process of election involves colossal wastage of money which is a mockery of democracy. The colossal money wasted, and the manhour lost is not replaceable. This flaw is inbuilt in the constitution to manipulate the situation by the party in power, he said.
The people with criminal record and punished for immorality should be barred from contesting elections. It is a pity that, around 70% parliamentarians are with criminal record. A candidate should not stand from more than one constituency at a time. The donations to the political parties should be through banks and their entire receipts should be subject to audit. There should be minimum qualification prescribed for contesting elections. There should be also a retirement age for the politicians, said Prakash.
Former Chief Secretary of Odisha, SahadebSahoo quoted from a survey report of the Institute of Media Studies. The survey revealed that, for a candidate for the parliament, Rs 100 crore is spent in every election. This amount is a colossal loss to the nation. The amount is also much more than the limit fixed by the EC. There is a loophole in the People's Representation Act, which does not restrict the amount spent by the party for the candidates in the election, Sahoo lamented.
The meeting was followed with live discussion by Professor UmasankarMisra, Engineer Nanda Nandan Das, former Collector DevarajSenapati, administrator of the Forest Department PandabBehera, former VC Shiba Prasad Adhikari, DrBrajaNayak, Nimai Swain among others.
The meeting ended with vote of thanks by president of club, BaradaPrasanna Das.
In the beginning of the meeting, condolence was observed in the memory of the 1st voter of the independent India, Late Sham Sharan Nevi, who voted for 36 times and passed away last month.