Panaji: Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee of Personnel, Public Grievances Law and Justice, Shantaram Naik on Saturday said all the political parties which appeared before the Committee have expressed doubts regarding the transparency of Electronic Voting Machines and have said that these machines can be manipulated and hence should be banned.
Naik, who presided over the meeting of the standing Committee in Shillong recently, stated that high ranking officers of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Manipur and Nagaland had appeared before the committee and expressed their views on the matter.
Naik said the committee is also examining whether right of making application under anti-defection law should be available to every citizen in the country as stated by the Supreme Court in its recent judgement in a Orissa case.
He also said the committee is also examining whether ceiling on expenditure prescribed under the law requires any changes.
A strong view emanated at the meeting that Code of Conduct should be enforced from the date of notification of elections and not from the date of announcement of elections by the Election Commission, in view of the fact that the development work suffers if Code of Conduct remains in force for too long a period.
According to him, the situation becomes worst if elections to Assembly, Lok Sabha and Parliament are held in the same year. (UNI)
