Controversy on Lok Sabha Speaker contesting elections
It refers to the controversy as highlighted in media on Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan contesting the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections or not. Two reasons are highlighted. Firstly, she has crossed an undeclared age-limit of 75 years said to have been fixed by the ruling BJP to give party-ticket. Secondly, she has not been able to devote sufficient time to her constituency Indore.
There must be an upper age-limit of say 70 years to contest any direct election so that any directly elected legislature may be out of lower House before completing the age of 75 years. Experienced persons if needed in central government, can be brought through the Upper House i.e. Rajya Sabha. However, the provision of Upper Houses in states should be constitutionally abolished.
The second aspect for not devoting time to the constituency is because of Lok Sabha Speaker been involved in the important assignment as chairperson of lower House of Parliament. Otherwise, also, propriety demands that Chairperson of the lower House should be politically neutral at any time. Therefore, only those persons should be elected as Speaker of the lower House both in centre and states, who may be willing to leave party-politics for rest of life.
Madhu Agrawal
32 FoBs to be dismantled
In order to avoid such perils, the Railways and the Government must take quick action in reconstructing such old bridges or as the case may be, else they will have to face the public wrath as they are already angry and would not hesitate to take on the officers, netas, and others concerned. All basic needs in the city where hundreds of thousands of people commute every day should be given priority. The impending danger ought to have been avoided by attending such sensitive issues then and there instead of buying time and pay a heavy price for the same. Red-Tapism should go and the Western Railway must act in a swift manner on a war footing.
Jayanthy Subramaniam
Voter awareness
The recent collaboration of the Election Commission of India (ECI) with the Hon’ble Ministry of Railways to create voter awareness drives on long-distance trains is welcome. The voter awareness communication strategy as adopted by the ECI comes with an attractive visual impression of vinyl printed decoration panels on train coaches. The train’s display panel exteriors carry key voter awareness messages and will certainly have a positive impact amongst the voters especially in rural areas.
The new voter awareness mechanism as adapted to be conveyed through trains will certainly help ensure ECI to attract large rural voters — as the trains travel extensively through remote villages across many states. It is also appreciable for the ECI and the Hon’ble Indian Railways to select four major popular long distance trains that include i.e. Kerala Express (Daily), Himsagar Express (Weekly) via South Indian villages, Howrah-Ahmedabad Express (Daily) and Howrah Guwahati Express (Weekly) that connect Western and Eastern India and travel extensively through the villages of interior Vindhya Regions.
Further ECI should also pick one more daily running train that prominently travels across the Konkan Coast. As it is given to understand that many villages near the railway stations in Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, and Kerala on this coastal railway route is only accessible through vastrailway network. The move will benefit and attract many rural voters to spread across many villages.
The ECI can also display the voter and poll-related printed messages through all the reserved and unreserved railway tickets. As the printed tickets act as an effective medium to generate a mass appeal amongst the voters in the rural region, the suggested move will thus help ensure ECI to make a strong positive impact on the voters.
Varun SD
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
