सम्मानित साथियों,
सादर प्रणाम।
आशा है आप स्वस्थ व सानन्द होंगे।
देश का चुनाव आयोग निकम्मा है और स्वतंत्र एवं निष्पक्ष चुनाव कराने में अक्षम। न तो वो पैसों के खेल से चुनावो को निकाल पा रहा है और न ही उम्मीदवारों के शपथ पत्रों की जांच की उसके पास कोई व्यवस्था है, ऐसे में मैं किस उम्मीदवार को वोट दूँ? मेरा लोकतंत्र में पूरा भरोसा है किंतू इसकी कमजोरियों को दूर करने के लिए बड़े स्तर पर चुनाव सुधारों की आवश्यकता है। आज मैंने और मौलिक भारत के साथियों नीरज सक्सेना, संजीव गुप्ता और घनश्याम जी ने नोटा का बटन दबाकर वर्तमान चुनावी तंत्र की खामियों के प्रति अपना विरोध दर्ज किया है। हम चुनाव आयोग को अपने वोटर पहचान पत्र सहित एक प्रतिवेदन भेज रहे हैं। हम मौलिक भारत के माध्यम से चुनाव आयोग और चुनाव प्रणाली में सुधार और सच्चे लोकतंत्र की स्थापना के लिए अपना संघर्ष जारी रखेंगे।
To,
The Chief Election Commissioner,
Election Commission of India,
Ashoka Road, NirwachanSadan,
New Delhi-110001.
Complaint Regarding : Compulsion to cast NOTA vote on 11 February 2017 in the absence of any mechanism available with Election Commission of India to verify the contents of affidavits of contesting candidates in General Elections to the Legislative Assemblies of Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.
Yesterday i.e. on 11/02/2017, We went to our Polling Station , we put our signatures in the Register of Voters (Form 17A) and pressed the ‘NOTA’ button at serial number 12 (Last Button) on the Electronic Voting Machine. REASON BEING that Election Commission of India by virtue of its powers, duties and functions under Article 324 the Commission is required to hold general elections to constitute the new Legislative Assemblies in the States of Goa, Punjab, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh as mentioned in its press note No. ECI/PN/1/2017 Dated: 4th January, 2017. But the Election Commission of India never performed its duty of verification of contents of affidavits of all contesting candidates either prior to the conduct of polling, and informing the electors about the genuineness of the contents of the affidavits, so that an elector can make up his or her mind before casting vote in favour of a contesting candidate to the election. And launching prosecution under section 125A of RP Act 1951 and section 177 IPC against the candidate(s) found filing false affidavit. In case it is not feasible for the Election Commission of India to verify the contents of the affidavit prior to the conduct of polls then Election Commission of India must devise some mechanism for verifying the genuineness of the contents of affidavit of the winning candidate and all other candidates who contested the election and launching prosecution under section 125A of RP Act 1951 and section 177 IPC against all those contesting candidate(s) whose affidavits were found containing false information. A writ petition (PIL) W.P.(C) 443/2014 titled (Maulik Bharat Trust through founder trustee Anuj Aggarwal and NeerajSaxena verses Election Commission of India and others) was filed before Hon’ble Delhi High Court of Delhi. The petitioners had prayed before Hon’ble High Court of Delhi (see para 3 of order dated 22/01/2014) seeking “formulation of a stringent procedure/mechanism for verification of the contents of affidavits of all contesting candidates in election to any public office in India. That (see para 4 of order dated 22/01/2014) “the counsel for the respondent No. 1 Election Commission of India appearing on advance notice has invited attention to Section 36 of the Representation of People Act, 1951 providing for scrutiny of nomination papers and to Section 125A providing penalty for filing false affidavit etc. and has contended that remedies have been provided under the said Act for situations for which guidelines are sought to be framed. It is further stated that it is not feasible for the Election Commission to verify contents of nomination forms and affidavits in the short time available”.
Electoral Reform suggested:
(1) Election Commission of India must devise some mechanism to require all Political Parties and Independent candidates to submit their affidavits for example six months prior to the notification of election to the Parliament and to the Legislature of every State so that ECI or the other agency i.e. CBDT gets sufficient time to verify each and every content of all affidavits and the electors of the constituencies getting sufficient time to know the whereabouts, suitability, competence and capabilities of the contesting candidates to be their future leader.
(2) Link Aadhar Card of the Elector to the Electoral Rolls for his/her identification and stop use and issue of Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) when mere possession of an EPIC issued to an elector does not guarantee him/her a vote, because it is mandatory that elector’s name should appear in the electoral roll.
(3) Make it mandatory for the contesting candidates to mention their Aadhar Card Number on Affidavit to ensure his/her place of ‘Ordinary Residence’ so that no body is permitted to violate the mandate of section 5(c) of RP Act 1951.
(4) Make it mandatory for the contesting candidates to file an additional affidavit or mention in the same affidavit that in case he/she wins the election than what steps he or she will take for raising the water table beneath earth and measures to be adopted by him/her for rain water harvesting.
(5) Measures to be initiated for treatment of sewage and disposal of sewage solid waste and residual water.
Neeraj saxena, Anuj Agarwal,
Sanjeev Gupta & GhanshyamLal Sharma,
Member Maulik Bharat
Dated 12 February 2017