Coimbatore: With local body elections around the corner, an RTI filed to rule out irregularities in allocation of wards and reservation has revealed several discrepancies in reservations and rotation of seats.
Coimbatore: With local body elections around the corner, an RTI filed to rule out irregularities in allocation of wards and reservation has revealed several discrepancies in reservations and rotation of seats.
Aa per Panchayat Act of TN 1994, reservation for Village Panchayat Presidents should be changed every ten years. Citing various reasons, this rule has not been upheld. The petitioner, B. Sujatha in her RTI query has sought explanation on the integrity of the State Election Commission and District Election Officer and wondered if political parties were above and beyond the rules.
The petitioner has also noted that there were many discrepancies like double entries, shifting voters from one ward to another among others. It was also found that the present voters list is not updated and still contains names of deleted voters and new names have not been added.
The petitioner also cited an incident from Malumichampatti, here where the reservation for Women (general category) for the post of Village Panchayat President in 2006 and 2011 were contested by men.
She noted that RTI letter copies fetched two different replies, one from the District Collectorate and the other from BDO Office, Village Panchayat.
According to the reply from the District Collectorate: 2006 - General (Women), 2011- General (Women) and 2016 - SC (Women). The BDO Office however responded differently by claiming 2006 and 2011 as General and 2016 Elections, as pending.
The petitioner went on to question how the public would follow the Constitutional framework, if the government does not abide to it. Crores of money is being spent for holding such unlawful elections, the petitioner alleged.
She also emphasized the need to take stringent action on the defaulters, to restore faith in the election system and democracy.