An electoral reform platform launches message service to raise voter awareness
An electoral reform platform launches message service to raise voter awareness
Their campaign featuring Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan did not fetch desired results ahead of the last general elections.
Yet, the Association for Democratic Reform (ADR) has not lost heart. The umbrella organization of more than 200 NGOs across the country has already started raising awareness among the voters for the upcoming elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh.
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ADR national coordinator Anil Bairwal said the service will be fully operational after September 30 as they are still collecting data regarding the assets, education and criminal background of those in the fray.
"It is for the first time that we are taking the initiative during assembly elections," Bairwal said.
He said that about 200 NGOs in Maharashtra, 25 in Haryana and eight in Arunachal are collaborating to teach voters about their rights and the importance of making the "right choice."
Bairwal conceded that despite various efforts by the civil society the political parties still consider persons with criminal background for ticket as they have "high winnability".
"They only give statements against criminalization of politics. Various political parties did not even revert when we wrote to them for evolving a consensus over giving ticket to only those with a clean image," Bairwal pointed out.
But, the ADR is resolved to continue its fight. "It will take some time for it to show results."
Besides propagating information, the ADR is also involved in organizing public meetings to drive home the importance of rooting out the criminals from the political system. Recently, a meeting was organised at Hansi in Haryana where the representatives from the ruling Congress and opposition Indian National Lok Dal were invited to debate before the people.
Apart from this, several NGOs collaborating with the initiative are also training people about the Right to Information Act and how they could make use of it to get the information they want from those in the power.
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The RTI Manch and 'Sanjha Kadam' are taking up the people's issues through RTI applications in Haryana while in Maharashtra 'Agni' and Iris are helping ADR.
Status quo
>>Maharashtra tops the list with 45% of the current MLAs having pending criminal records based on their 2004 affidavits, one having several murder cases against him. Haryana also has more than 31% of MLAs having criminal records. In Arunachal Pradesh 5% of the outgoing MLAs have criminal records.
>>The number of women MLAs is very low in all the three outgoing assemblies, with no women MLAs in Arunachal Pradesh, only 4% women MLAs in Maharashtra and 12% women MLAs in Haryana.
>>52.22% of the MLAs in Haryana assembly are crorepatis. It is followed by 37.50% crorepati MLAs in Maharashtra and 28.33% in Arunachal Pradesh.
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