Dr. JP invites the brightest to Contest GHMC elections

The Lok Satta Party today appealed to the brightest citizens in Hyderabad to take active interest in civic affairs by contesting the elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.

“View the ensuing elections as a golden opportunity to transform our city for good and not as a political exercise”, Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan said here.

“It is a disgrace to all of us that people should go through the indignity of living amidst overflowing sewers or die of drinking water.”

Dr. JP recalled that many stalwarts of the freedom struggle cut their teeth in politics by taking part in civic affairs and subsequently emerged as national leaders.

The Lok Satta, he said, has finalized a sharply defined agenda for transforming the city in the next five years.

The five promises the party is making are:

• Supply of safe drinking water in all colonies and bastis which do not have the facility now with the installation of reverse osmosis plants
  
• Implementing a citizen’s charter through a call centre, under which failure to attend to a public grievance in a specified period invites a Rs.100 per day penalty on the GHMC
  
• Identification and resolution of problems basti-colony wise and implementation of a division agenda in three phases – 100 days, one year and five years respectively.
  
• Devolution of GHMC funds at the rate of Rs.2 crore for each division every year, so that an elected divisional committee could spend it on attending to pressing local problems
  
• Integration of the functioning of the GHMC, Metrowater and Urban Development Authority
  

Dr. JP said the Lok Satta is keen on fielding candidates of integrity and leadership qualities and appealed to the younger generation eager to contest the elections to contact the Lok Satta Party headquarters (Tel: 23231818) or its call center (40405050) with their bio data. They are also welcome to email it to the GHMCCandidates@loksatta.org. The aspiring candidates will be screened and interviewed by a committee once the Government finalizes the reservation of wards.

Dr. JP appealed to the State Election Commission to honor its commitment to the High Court by ensuring there is a gap of at least a month between the finalization of wards’ reservation and the election notification. The parties need the time to choose candidates in a transparent and democratic manner. He also requested the Election Commission to include ‘whistle’ among free symbols. The Lok Satta would like to contest on the ‘whistle’ symbol with which the party has been identified.