Parliamentary Elections 2009

Write about your voting experience.

Did you feel satisfied about voting & contributing to the Democratic Process?

What was the problem you faced at the Polling Booth?
Where you able to identify your Booth easily?
Was your name easily found in the voter list?
Was the EVM functioning fine?
Was is easy to use EVM?
Was the environment at the Polling Booth calm?
Did anybody try to canvass/influence your vote at the Polling Booth?

Anything that you felt while going out and voting….

MYNETA.INFO has compiled the details of the Candidates contesting in the Parliamentary Elections from the affidavits filed by them.
The link to the affidavits for candidates from Tamil Nadu is as below:

http://myneta.info/tamil_nadu

Click on the Constituency name to view the candidate comparison. Click on Candidate Name to view the details.

Direct link to Chennai Constituency Candidate comparison:

Chennai Central  – http://myneta.info/chennai_central
Chennai North     - http://myneta.info/chennai_north
Chennai South     – http://myneta.info/chennai_south

What should a voter consider while voting in the upcoming Parliamentary elections? National Issues or Local Issues?

A tricky question to answer. While we must consider mainly national issues while voting to elect our Country’s Government, we normally are more influenced by state level or even local issues. State politics play an important role in parliamentary elections also.

While local issues are important for the electorates, it’s the national issues and the performance of their MPs that must be given more importance. Local issues cannot be influenced much by the MPs since the local administration is State’s & Local Body’s (Corporation/Municipality/Panchayat) purview.

Let’s start reforming the Electoral System by first putting up an Ideal Mandate. A Mandate that will be focused on making India a better place to live in.

1. Uniform Civil Code – Every citizen in the country must follow the same law. Special exceptions can be given to certain categories but that must not be generalised.

2. Stringent Punishment for Corruption – Stripping the guilty of all his assets, including those of his dependants and longer sentence in jail.

3. Faster implementation of e-Governance – Reduce the interaction between the Govt. Official & the Public. This will improve the delivery of services and reduce the need to bribe an official to do what he is supposed to do in normal course.

4. Speedier Trials at Courts. Bring in law to ensure undue delay is punishable for court officials & Judges. Improve Judicial Infrastructure.

5. Better facilities to the Uniformed Services - Armed Forces, Police, Paramilitary, etc. At the same time, punishment will be severe for any mis-use of power/authority

6. Environmental Protection - Ensure forest land is not encroached upon. Taxation structure to punish polluting industries. Stringent Implementation of Pollution laws.

7. Transperancy in Governance & Decision Making - enhance the RTI Act. Allow single point application submission & online application submission. Pro-active disclosures to be increased. Every project undertaken must have the details of the start date, end date, cost, agency responsible for monitoring, approving authority, project executing agency. Public opinion on quality of work must be gathered. Each agency/person involved will be liable for action in case of complaints from public

8. Reservation - Change the rules of Reservation. Wards of parents who have received reservation benefits will NOT BE ELIGIBLE for Reservation. This is to ensure all the people for whom reservation is given are benefited. Today the scenario is that only a small sub-segment of the SC/STs who have benefited from the reservation policy in earlier years continue to corner it. Vast majority of the SC/STs continue to be deprived of the benefits.

9. National ID Card - Move towards uniform identity to all Indians. Smart Card which can be used to store all details of the individual. Easy to carry, easy to modify.

10. Improve Election Process & Rules to increase accountability of the Elected Representatives – Contestants contesting from more than 1 constituency and subsequently resigning must reimburse the cost of elections in that constituency. Voting to be made easier for Armed Forces. Debar criminals from contesting elections.

11. Water will be national resource – Study and implement optimal way to utilise the huge but precacious water potential in India. Linking rivers, ponds to optimally store water for dry days.

12. National Security – Complete fencing along Bangaladesh Border at the earliest.  Educate & enable citizens living in border areas with better protection & livelihood to gave a first line of defence. Develop Naxal hit areas for alienating the naxals at grass-root.

Add to your

National Issues of Importance:

1. National Security
- External Threat from Terrorism, Neighbours
- Internal Threat from radial organisations
- Political unwillingness & inability to have stringent anti-terror laws and enforcement

2. Stable Economy
- Protect national economy from global economic turbulances
- Policies to benefit the common man and not FIIs
- Government to be enabler for jobs and not a provider for jobs

3. Social Engineering
- Discriminatory Policies in favour of any particular community/religion/caste/creed must be scraped.
- Uniform Civil Code for all Indians
- Uniform rules & regulation across the length & breadth of India while ensuring that regional & local identity is preserved.

4. Political & Judicial Reforms
- Candidate contesting & winning from more than one constituency and then resigning from one must be asked to reimburse the cost of elections in that constituency.
- Political parties must be forced to put their accounts in public domain
- Faster trials in courts.
- Streamline Appeals process in Judiciary. If Higher Court rules against the lower court order then both orders must be reviewed by an independent body and judge giving the wrong decision must be punished. If both concur then the party appealing must bear the full cost of the case in both the courts.

5. Governance
- Quicken the process of e-governance implementation. Reduce the interaction between public and Public Servants.
- Strikes & Bandhs affecting General Public must be made illegal. Those wanting to protest must do so with the responsible concerned. General Public must not be disturbed.
- Improve RTI Act. Enable Online submission of RTI Application to any department from a central authority in each state (like the one implemented at Centre)
- Make Public Servants & Elected Representatives responsible for any mismanagement in Government.
- Reform Land Records. Ensure Registering Authority must also be responsible for prevention of fraud.
- Ensure adequate publicity & visibility for grievance/ complaining process is displayed prominantly in Public Office and e-enable it.

Please write your opinion on these issues and also add any other issue you think is of national importance.

This is the second part of my blog on What’s wrong with namma Chennai.

Waterways or lack thereof  is my lament. Chennai is one of the very few cities worldwide to boast of two rivers running right through it. Most of them would be surprised to know if rivers run through Chennai at all in the first place. Adyar and Coovam are the rivers. But to all, these are not rivers but wholesale sewages. What else can one call it. Indiscriminate dumping of waste has turned what could have been a marvel into eyesore. This dumping of waste is being continued for many many years without any intervention from our political class. Of course, they merely stop with putting up plans/committees to correct the situation. There has been no action on ground.  There has been periodic desilting of Coovam river at the Marina Beach point but just that, no attempt has been made to correct the root cause. Everyone blames everyone else – tanneries and other industries, slums, general public. But can you believe it, the TWAD board itself let untreated sewage into these rivers for a long long time. I’m not sure if that is still being practiced by TWAD.

Another man-made waterway into ruins is the Buckingham canal. In the name of MRTS, our planning stalwarts have destroyed a major and critical portion of the canal running right through the city.  The best part is  people are currently talking about reviving the canal and use it to transport good and people.  But I don’t hope to see the plan being realized in the next 20 years.

Just imagine how beautiful if will be if both the rivers are cleaned up and interlinked to the Buckingham canal and pure water runs through it.

Chennai, will you ever turn beautiful?

I love Chennai – given all its plusses and minuses. It really irks me when the minuses outweigh the plusses. People from all walks of life will love Chennai only if the plusses outweigh the minuses. So what are the minuses? This is not a ranking and issues are not in any particular order. I’ll list down the issues and take up one issue per post on a detailed basis

Major Issues -

1.Transportation and Traffic

2.Waterways

3.Urban Planning

4.Green cover

5. Hygiene and Civic sense

Issue for the day : Transportation & Traffic -

Everyone complains about traffic and increase in private transportation, it is a vicious cycle. But if at all there was a efficient public tranport system, more than 80% of our traffic related problems would have been solved. Building flyovers is not the solution. Infact we have most of the flyovers on the wrong roads/places or wrong length. All of our solutions given by the politicans is only short termed. Probably only till thier tenure lasts. We need people who can think and implement things from a 40-50yrs perspective. Look at the Gemini flyover constructed way back, or look at the width of Mount Road (Anna Salai) built by Britishers and compare it with any of the bridges or road we have built in recent times. I’m again saying if at all we have a proper public transportation model, we can still manage with the roads we have.  Many efforts have been taken to have a multi modal tranport authority but it effectively not there even on paper. MRTS was started and still not completed, Metro is to be started, Beach expressway has been proposed, Adyar River expressway has been proposed, Port expressway launched and the list goes on and on.

Take MRTS for example, why has been there a delay for so long? The Govt is taking so many steps to project IT Highway, why is there no proposal to take the MRTS till there? It is common sense that the train tracks be extended till there, or is ITEL preveting it because it stands to lose toll revenue? In Mumbai, train is the main mode of transport and buses are used to serve stations, why can’t we have it here?

Another classic example is Autos, just google Chennai and Auto and check. Everyone on earth know that Auto in Chennai are the worst of the lost, fleecing customers day in day out right in front of the eyes of law but still no action is taken against them.  After all auto is another mode of public transport. If the system in B’lore or Mumbai is adopted, people will definetly prefer to choose autos and buses and trains instead of cars and bikes.

All I would say to politicians is set right the public transportation model and save crores of rupees. It is not very tough to do it, all it takes is a litle courage and long term vision.

The UPA Government has managed to complete 5 years (well almost – for the more statistically inclined – two months remain officially).

UPA had the fortune of being at the helm during one of the best Boom Times in recent history. Most sectors in the economy grew at a rapid pace vis-a-vis previous years. The people in general had a feeling of well-being. But all this has been undone in the last year or so. Economy is slowing down, all the rapid expansion are being unwound now.

UPA ministers have been quick to blame the Global Recession (read: external forces) for the situation we find ourselves in. But is the Global recession the only factor to be blamed?

UPA ministers have been boasting about the splendid performance of their ministries or industries/companies under their ministries – starting from Railway Minister to Civil Aviation Minister to Commerce Minister.

Recent revealing from different sources have confirmed that UPA’s performance was more due to the Global Boom and foundation laid by previous Government. (Read articles in Business Line: 1, 2). All the hype about spectacular turn-around of the Railways and the booming Aviation Sector have been laid bare by these articles.

In fact, UPA regime has ensured that most of the foundation laid by the previous Government was undone. Project Overruns & Delays have ensured that the Core Infrastructure projects like National Highway & Power Plants are way behind the targets.

The mockery of SEZ will be played out in the coming years when it will be clear that SEZ is for the benefit of private players only and not for the local public or the region. More industries will move their facilities into SEZ and away from existing facilities. Land (esp. prime land) are being given away at throw-away prices.
The need for SEZ is to help create or build competencies in an nascent industry and it must not be ported for generic purposes as was done. This has just ensured that every promotor is now shifting into SEZs to improve his profitability at the cost of the Government (lower or no taxes, concessions on raw materials, differential labour norms). UPA has not even copied concepts properly. When China built SEZs, it was no-where in the Global Trade/Manufacturing, while India is already established in many industries.

National Security has been one of the clear weakness of the present Government. It took an incidence like Mumbai 26/11, that involved powerful people at the receiving end, for the Government to enact a National Anti-terrorism Law.

Fortunately we had a strict RBI Governor in Dr.Y.V.Reddy who ensured that the Banking System did not go haywire while the rest of the world simply fell like a pack of cards. Whether the new Governor will be as prudent will be seen in the coming days.

Coming Back to the UPA Government, I would personally list very few things are achievements:
Probably the passing of the 123 Agreement in the Parliament would rank high. NREGS (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme), RTI Act, Amendments to the Company’s Act are good initiatives that come to my mind.

In 2004, when NDA Government launched the “India Shining” Campaign – Congress was the 1st to rebuke the Government for using Public Resources for Party’s prospects and launched it’s own “Aam Admi” Campaign.
Today the tables have turned, Congress is blatantly used Public Resources to highlight every other scheme introduced by it. One Congressman even went to the extent of saying “it was common for parties to do it”. Surprisingly Media has not made much of the issue while in 2004 most had made bad press about it and given more than adequate coverage to Congress’s criticism. Probably in today’s recession, media is more than happy to receive the AD money from any source…

The Federal Structure followed in India splits the responsibility for governence between the State and Central Governments with some Issues falling in the Concurrent list where both has the responsiblities and the powers to govern.

Most of the local issues faced by the people are part of the State List for which the State Government is responsible. The representatives of the people in the State are the MLAs. Member of Parliament (MP) represents the Constituency at a National Level in the Central Parliament. Most of the issues in the Central List deal with the Country as a whole and not based on individual Constituency. Given this scenario, What should we expect our MP to do? What is the role played by an MP in the welfare of people in the Constituency?