I was quite interested to get an invitation by the Election Commission of India to attend a meeting at Nirvachan Sadan at Delhi tomorrow. I'm in Kolkata airport now, waiting to board IT-604 which is 10 minutes late and will leave by 9.05 pm.
The meeting will be on controlling expenditure in elections. I had, when I was Chief Electoral Officer, in March this year submitted a paper to the Commission analysing the problem and outlining the way forward - both in the short term and in the medium term.I think the invitation to attend has something to do with that but the Election Commission officer who reminded me on telephone to attend and tell me that the full Commission would address the meeting didn't mention anything about it.
I am indeed quite curious to see how the meeting unfolds tomorrow at 11 am.
-DS
(At Kolkata Airport, using HP Mini & Tata Photon)
Attended meeting. Full Election Commission was there. There were few other (not all) CEOs and few past Election Expenditure Observers.
ReplyDeleteIt was clear that the Commission would take a strong stand on expenditure issues in future elections. A draft note was discussed on which the participants commented. Helplines to Observers was a possibility as well as filing FIRs for expenditure norms breaching.
The Commisssion has already issued an order in combating the phenomenon of 'paid news'.
I found a small write-up in today's Anandabazar. Here's the link:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.anandabazar.com/22desh9.htm
(Hope it works!)