Anti-corruption campaign will reach every village: Kejriwal

--Kejriwal urges Odisha CM to adopt Uttarakhand Lokayukta bill

BHUBANESWAR: “Anti-corruption campaign by India Against Corruption (IAC) would reach to the village level and form a committee to create awareness among the common people which will impose pressure on the Government to pass the Jan Lokpal Bill,” said the national leader of IAC and core member of Team Anna Arvind Kejriwal while addressing a huge congregation of volunteers came from across 30 districts of the State here on Saturday.   

Kejriwal said that any bill introduced in the Parliament and the Assemblies should first be referred to the Gram Sabhas and Maholla Sabhas for taking people’s opinion. The MPs and MLAs should make their case basing on the will of the people.

He expressed grave concern over the loot of land of the poor farmers by the corporate world. Land can be transferred only after written agreements by the farmers elaborating the conditions there of, he added.

“The corrupt must be punished in one to two years time, his property should be confiscated and he should be dismissed from the service,” said Kejriwal adding, “There should be timely delivery of service by the government servants, failing which the Lokpal will ensure compensation to the victims and penalty to the defaulters.”

He also said that in the current central cabinet, 16 ministers have serious charges against them out of total 34 Ministers and if Jan Lokpal Bill is passed at least 12 ministers will go to jail, it might be the reason why the Centre does not want Jan Lokpal. There is a need of cleansing political system, he reiterated.

Kejriwal declared here that the IAC will launch nationwide biggest ever campaign making three broad demands citizen charter, to bring Group-C and D employees to the purview of Lokpal and Lokayukta in State, if strong Lokpal bill does not come by May 22 this year.

He urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to adopt the effective Lokayukta bill which is recently introduced by the Uttarakhand Government to check corruption in the State. He termed the Uttarakhand anti-corruption bill as very strong and effective.   

  

Guv emphasises on separate State policy for women

BHUBANESWAR: “It was envisaged that 90 per cent of women who work in the unorganised sector would get benefits once a separate state women’s policy is formulated to look into their problems and issues,” said Governor MC Bhandare while inaugurating the State-level consultation on “The Role of the State Policies in Addressing the Issues of Women from the Marginalised Sections and the Unorganised Sector” organised by National Alliance of Women Odisha Chapter (NAWO) here on Thursday.

“There still exists a wide gap between the goals enunciated in the constitution, legislation, policies, plans, programmes and related mechanisms on the one hand and the ground level situational reality of the status of women in India, on the other,” the Governor said.

He also said the women are living in a world of human rights, where they can enjoy equal dignity, equal opportunity and equal rights with the men. Steps should be taken for mobilisation of poor women and convergence of services, by offering them a range of economic and social options, along with necessary support measures to enhance their capabilities, he added.

“If you empower a man, you empower a person. If you empower a woman, you not only empower a family but also a society,” Bhandare said.

Member of the Planning Commission of India Dr Sayeeda Hameed said that safety is the responsibility of the State. In all over the country you can find that the women are suffering from rape, gang rape, molestation and sexual harassment and its reason is silence. But now the women are coming out of the culture of silence. The State like Odisha is also not a backbencher in the record of crime against women, she added.

Among others, former chairperson of the National Commission for Women Dr Mohini Giri and chairperson of the Commission for persons with disability Kasturi Mohapatra were present. The convener of NAWO, Odisha chapter Pramila Swain presided over the consultation.

MLA’s urge CM to stop cattle trafficking

BHUBANESWAR: MLAs of the State have urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to stop illegal cattle trafficking from the State as it affects 40 lakh farmers who depends on cattle for agriculture work. They also suggested the Government to bring some reformation in the animals act to check the trafficking.

The MLAs like Pratap Sarangi, Anup Kumar Sai, Amar Prasad Satpathy, RCC Patnaik, Bhagirathy Badjena, Hrushikesh Nayak, Hitesh Kumar Bagarti and others said the mafias are illegally trafficking thousands of cattle daily to other States as a result the price of cattle is increasing in home market which affects 95 per cent of farmers in the State who depends on cattle for agriculture work. Most of the farmers will loss livelihood due the illegal trafficking, they added.

They alleged that the police are not taking action against the traffickers, even the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act is not helping to check the illegal cattle export. To solve the problem, the Government should bring reform in the act and auction the seized cattle within seven days of rescue with the help of local veterinary doctors, they suggested.

The MLAs also suggested the Government should make a provision to provide 20 per cent of the auction money as reward to the person or organisation and the Government employees for nabbing the cattle loaded vehicle. Money should be provided for cattle food and to the labourers who will take care of the cattle till auction, they added.  

OJEE 1st phase exam held

--Many fail to appear due to wrong course code

BHUBANESWAR: Due to wrong course code, many students could not appear the first phase of the Odisha Joint Entrance Examination (OJEE) of this year on Sunday. While, the OJEE authorities held the applicants responsible for putting wrong course code in their application form.

According to the students who failed to appear the exam said that their roll number was not matching with the examination centre and in some cases fresh applicants for engineering course had received identity card for lateral entry. Many of the applicants in some examination centers in the capital city failed to sit in the examination hall.

While the authorities of OJEE clarified that some students have put the wrong course code in the place of their interested course which left them in problem. “Around 150 students had come to the OJEE office and corrected their wrong course code before the examination day, but some of the students complained in the morning at the time of examination where we could not help them out,” said OJEE Vice-chairman Sitaram Mahapatra.

In Kolkata OJEE center, five fake candidates were held in the charge of impersonification in the examination. The persons came in the name of the original candidates to write for them and later the examination centre officials caught the fake candidates and handed over to the police, informed Mahapatra.     

Around one lakh students have appeared in the first phase of the examination on Sunday in 179 centers in the country including some major cities. The applicants of home State have appeared in 145 centers and there were 42 centers in the capital only. The result will be published on May last week and Rank card will be provided to the successful candidates by June second week, while the second phase of the OJEE for pharmacy course will be held on May 13.  

   

For electoral and political reform some recommendations

BHUBANESWAR: The Eighth National Conference on Electoral & Political Reforms, inaugurated by the Election Commissioner Shri H.S.Brahma, concluded today. This two-day conference was attended by Election Watch groups of more than 22 States, various NGOs and activists, eminent citizens, media personalities, Representatives of all major Political Parties and Other Stakeholders from all over the country.

Discussions took place on various aspects of the Electoral and Political issues, particularly the issues concerning financial transparency and inner-party democracy of the political parties. Concerns were also expressed the increasing role of media in electoral mal-practices and its impact on news coverage.

The Conference unanimously resolved:

§       Candidates with Criminal ancedents should be debarred from contesting elections.

§       There is an urgent need for a comprehensive Bill to regulate the functioning of Political Parties to ensure inner party democracy and financial transparency within the political parties.

§       The internal elections for the offices of political parties should be done using secret ballot and the culture of unanimous selection of the office bearers must stop.

§       The ticket distribution process of the political parties should be made transparent and should be decided by the registered members of political parties.

§       The accounts of the political parties should be audited by the CAG appointed auditors.

§       The Political Parties should be declared as Public Authorities so that their functioning could be transparent  and be made more accountable.

§       Strict Laws should be passed to punish candidates involved in Electoral malpractices, particularly for buying of votes.

§       Implement ceiling on expenses of Political Parties during election period.

§       Strict actions against candidates who fail to file their election expenses.

§       There should be a cooling off period of 5 years before which bureaucrats or people who have changed their parties are allowed to contest elections on tickets of a political party.

§       The requirement for winning election should be “50% + 1 of the registered votes cast.

§       Voting machines should have the option of “None of the above”. If the election in a constituency results in “None of the above” getting the maximum number of votes, there should be a re-poll and the candidates who contested should not be allowed to re-contest in that election.

PRI poll politics destroys village peace: Srikant

--‘Odisha is the highest breeder of black money’

BHUBANESWAR: “Odisha is the highest breeder of black money in the country in the form of coal and mines loot and from other sources of corruption,” said Minister of State for Chemical and Fertilisers Srikant Kumar Jena participating in a discussion at the 8th National Conference on ‘Electoral and Political Reforms’ organised by National Election Watch (NEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) here on Sunday.

Sharing his views in a discussion on ‘Political Party Reforms’, Jena said the Panchayati Raj election has completely destroyed the village peace. After the influence of politicians and political party, the villagers are divided and sub-divided into many groups. Now there is a conflict in every Gramsabha regarding election matter as pre-poll politics and post-poll violence has changed the scenario of village which is based on harmony and brotherhood, he added.

He said the people while casting vote they don’t bother about the political party, but casts vote keeping faith on the candidate which indicates that credibility of a political leader is most important than party philosophy.

He also emphasised on more political party for a vibrant democracy and the Government should abolish the MP and MLA lad fund, which is one of a source of corruption by the politicians and his party fellows.

“To reach at the consensus of an issue, we have to debate on that particular matter, but we are hardly debating on important core issues neither in the Parliament nor in the State Assembly like western world, and hence, there is a need to reforming the political system along with political parties,” Jena added.

Minister Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation of Uttar Pradesh Government Ambika Chaudhary said that lot of people are given tickets bypassing genuine party workers who has worked hard in politics for several years which is not a healthy trend. “There should be a cooling off period for people who are switching parties as well as the bureaucrats on their contesting elections after retirements”, he added.

Among others, former Finance Minister of Odisha Panchanand Kanungo, Former DGP of Odisha Sarat Chandra Mishra, former DGP of West Bengal Dr Amiya K Samanta, NEW State representatives and civil society members were present. 

EC emphasises for banning of criminals from electoral politics

BHUBANESWAR: “Banning of criminals from electoral politics may solve 95 per cent of the problem of the country which are created by the politicians and his fellows,” said Election Commissioner HS Brahma while addressing the house at the 8th National Conference on ‘Electoral and Political Reforms’ organised by National Election Watch (NEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) here on Saturday.

Brahma said the time has come to impose ban on criminals from electoral process, because the elected representatives having criminal background are creating various problems including crimes such as murder, dacoity, rape, violation of human rights and corruption to get fund from different sources. “If we debar the criminals to take entry in active politics from Panchayati Raj election and Municipal election to Legislative and Parliament election, 95 per cent problem of the society will be solved,” he added.

He also emphasised on political and electoral reform in the country. He expressed grave concern over expenditure of huge money in general election by the politicians, criminalisation of politics and spending money for their favourable coverage in media which is now termed as paid news syndrome.

On the issue of horse-trading for Rajya Sabha poll in Odisha, he said the Election Commission has sent the documents and evidences relating the issue to the Odisha Government and they hope the State Government will take immediate action on this matter.     

Following the inauguration of the two-day conference by Election Commissioner Brahma, five thought provoking sessions were held on its first day. The top politicians, police officers, bureaucrats, social activists, media professionals and members of the Election Commission participated in the discussions.

The members discussed about money power in elections, political party reforms, role of media in ensuring free and fair elections and role of youth in democracy during the sessions. The State representatives of National Election Watch of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Goa and Manipur also shared their experiences during the recent assembly elections.