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Observe the Code of Ethics : PM, Sonia Gandhi |
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Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi have urged party MPs to dispel the wrong notions about the MPLAD Scheme. In their first statement on the issue since the Operation Chakravyuh expose, they urged Members not to let a few black sheep tarnish the image of the party. Addressing the end-of-session Congress Parliamentary Party meeting, the Prime Minister said, “We cannot afford to let people have wrong impressions about us.” The burden of ensuring proper implementation of government programmes was on state governments, he said. “Our MPs must act as watchdogs and custodians of these programmes to ensure that they are implemented in the desired manner.”
Sonia Gandhi pointed out the need to rectify the impression that the MPLAD funds are being misused. “All members, individually and collectively, should dispel the mistaken notions of the Fund’s large scale misuse. I know many of you are using these funds well.”
She asked MPs to go in for “self-introspection” and commit themselves to the code of ethics. “This means scrupulous adherence to the norms to prevent conflict of interest and to the disclosure requirements that are clearly stipulated,” she said.
Use e-governance to disqualify dubious politicians : President
President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has said that e-governance could be used to keep politicians of doubtful integrity away from elections. Speaking at the India Empowered Summit in New Delhi on Tuesday, Dec. 20, he said knowledge economy could empower the nation. He said with e-governance where all the Government departments and institutions are inter-connected, the Election Officer could immediately verify the candidate’s authenticity from the national citizen identity data base through authentication from a multi-purpose citizen identity card.
“His education credentials can come from university records, his track record of employment from various employers, and his income and wealth resources from the Income-tax Department and other sources.
“The candidate’s property record could come from the registration of land authority. His credit history could be collected from various credit institutions like banks. His civic consciousness and citizenship behaviour could come from the police records and his legal track records from the judicial system.”
“Artificial intelligence software could analyse his credentials and give a rating on how successful a politician he will be,” said Kalam, adding that it was also possible to let people cast their vote sitting at home. “
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