Cut freebie promises, activists tell EC

The Election Commission is working hard to pre vent distribution of money to voters. But when it comes to stopping political parties from announcing freebies in poll manifestos, it is doing nothing, lament activists.
A group of activists and rep resentatives of NGOs submitted a representation to Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi and chief electoral officer Rajesh Lakhoni on Thursday , urging them to clean up manifestos.The demand reflects popular sentiment, expressed by a majority of youth in the state, that freebies are not taking the state anywhere. Parties had been using freebies to di vert attention of voters from pressing issues like lack of development and job opportunities. The state has lost several thousand job opportunities in recent years owing to flight of industries. Although the urban population feel the freebies could make the state bankrupt and hence could not be implemented, the rural folk may fall for it, said B Suresh Kumar, founder of Naalaya India, an NGO.
The manifestos of both AIADMK and the DMK violate the Constitution of India, Representation of the People Act, various Supreme Court judgements and ECI's code of conduct, said the representation.“Direct AIADMK and DMK to remove the `freebie promises' from their manifestos. If they fail to do so, annul the freebie promises and direct these parties to issue fresh manifestos without these promises. If this direction is not complied with, the parties should be disqualified from contesting the election,“ said the representation.
A week ago, AIADMK general secretary J Jayalalithaa promised 50% subsidy on scooters for women and free mobile phones to all ration card holders. Even DMK manifesto promises phones to the poor. They do not reflect the rationale for promises and do not indicate the ways and means of mobilising resources. Hence, they are not likely to be fulfilled, said MG Devasahayam of Forum for Electoral Integrity.