Focus on electoral, police reforms

Suggesting a slew of electoral and police reforms, Justice JS Verma committee has suggested a new electoral law prescribing strict guidelines for the police and a commission in every state to make the police a professional organisation, Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Jan 24, 2013, 24:13:23 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Suggesting a slew of electoral and police reforms, Justice JS Verma committee has suggested a new electoral law prescribing strict guidelines for the police and a commission in every state to make the police a professional organisation.

The panel believes that reforms in the two key institutions were the key for re-imposing people’s faith in government, which were highlighted with nation-wide protest after the gang rape of a para-medic student in Delhi on December 16.

Observing that there were MPs booked for rape and crime against women, the committee wants the government to legislate a new law stipulating a code of conduct for political parties, instituting transparency in receiving donations and declaring whether the parties had given tickets to persons with past criminal records.

It also wants the government to give powers to CAG to investigate the declaration of candidates regarding their assets and recommend disqualification in case the declaration is found to be false.The committee has also asked the Election Commission to adopt name and shame policy of criminals in politics by maintaining a database of all contesting candidates.

Panel also wants the police to more responsive towards citizens and has sought strengthening of complaint authorities, making registration of complaints mandatory and measure performance of police personnel.

Govt firm on banning criminals: Kumar

Law minister Ashwani Kumar said he had asked the Law Commission to recommend steps to prevent people with criminal charges from being elected to Parliament and assemblies. He was also in favour of lowering the age at which an offender could be termed juvenile to 16 years from 18.

“Reforms in the electoral process are important to check corruption. The commission is expected to submit its report by April.” He said the process would involve deciding the nature of crimes.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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