In order to enable the voter to make an informed choice, the Uttarakhand Citizen Initiative (UCI) released a voter’s checklist, claiming it to be a first-of-its-kind initiative in the nation.
Uttarakhand UCI co-founder Manoj Gairola said that as Uttarakhand is gearing up for the fourth assembly elections, it becomes important to caution the citizens of the state to exercise their voting rights judiciously. For good governance of a state it is important that the elected representatives should have good credentials and should be able to deliver. Otherwise we may get criminals (8 per cent candidates have serious criminal charges), uneducated (49 candidates have education below class 5), and MlAs with poor work record elected to the assembly.
Uttarakhand UCI advisor Dinesh Bhatt said that in the voter’s checklist released, the voters are asked to note five major development activities taken in the past five years in the constituency by existing/ex-MlA. For such candidates, the utilisation status of MlA lAD funds, accessibility to the representative, visiting frequency of the representative, whether the representative changed her/his party after election, his or her financial assets in 2012 and now in 2017, clean record and whether the representative participated in question hour/debates in the assembly are points which should be considered by the voter.
In case of a new candidate, the voters have been appealed to consider the candidate’s background and whether he or she is a relative of a politician. For such candidates, voters have been requested to consider whether the candidate been involved in an activity for betterment of society or has made any known contribution to society.