The ECI is responsible for con-ducting electons to Parliamentthe Legislature of every stateand to the offices of Presidentand Vice-President It was es-tablished in 1950 and is a per-manent constitutional body

WHOrsquoS IN CHARGEThe ECI is headed by a ChiefElection Commissioner and twoElection Commissioners Thismulti-member Commission hasbeen in place since 1993 anddecisions are made bymajority voteThe current ChiefElectionCommissioner ofIndia is VSSampath He isan IAS officerfrom Andhra Pradesh

WHAT DO THEY DO1 THEY MAKE SUREWE CAN VOTEThe Indian constitutionguarantees us regular free and fairelections The ECI for example

has to figure out when to conductthe elections (the weather shouldbe suitable enough all over thecountry it shouldnrsquot disrupt cropharvesting season or examschedules of schools etc) how tostation ballot boxes and pollingbooths at Indiarsquos vast and oftenremote villages

2 THEY GIVE EVERYONE ANEQUAL CHANCE

All political parties and candidatesmust be given an equalchance to participateand win the electionsThe ECI ensuresthis by designing aset of rules calledthe Model Codeof Conduct

This includesall aspects ofcampaigning and has to be strictlyfollowed by every party

3 THEY MAKE SURE THE PARTIESARE QUALIFIED

Political parties have to beregistered with the ECI whichdetermines if the party isstructured and follows theprinciples of democracysecularism and socialism Basedon certain criteria parties arecategorised as National State orunrecognised parties The partyrsquosclassification determines its rightto certain privileges

5 THEY CANDISQUALIFYCORRUPTMINISTERSThe ECI alsotakes on thefunction of thejudiciary ie thecourts by givingtheir opinion on whether a sittingMP or MLA who is found to haveengaged in corrupt practicesduring elections should bedisqualified or not and for howlong

6 THEY KEEP THE MEDIAINFORMEDThe ECI holds regular briefings fornewspapers and electronic media

The guardians of free and fair elections Itrsquos no easy job organising such a massive affair like Indiasgeneral election Huge amounts of money and millions ofpeople will be involved in ensuring all goes smoothly Overseeingthe entire process is the Election Commission of India (ECI)

DESIGN KB JAWAHARRTEXT KAVYA RAM MOHAN AND NANDITA JAYARAJ

during the election period Themedia are allowed to report on theconduct of polls and countingThey are allowed into pollingstations and counting booths ifauthorised Statistical reports andother documents also are alsomade available to the public bythe Commission

7 THEY COUNT THE VOTESTO DECLARE THE WINNERThe ECI appoints a ReturningOfficer and observers who are incharge of counting the votes ineach constituency after pollingThe candidate with the most votesis declared winner

4 THEY SET LIMITS ON POLL EXPENSESRicher candidates will be able to spend more money on campaigningthan poorer ones and as a result get more votes This may not be fair tothose without as many resources The EC levels the playing field bysetting tight legal limits on how much a candidate can spend duringtheir campaign (for example in 2003 the limit was Rs 25 lakh for LokSabha seats) They have to strictly account for all the money they spend

The voter ID card while not compulsory todayserves as a photo identification system to protectthe identity of every voter in the country The firstvoter ID cards were issued in 1992 This happenedafter a long tussle between the then Chief ElectionCommissioner (CEC) of India and the govern-ment Only when the CEC took a tough stand andannounced that there would be no elections after1995 if citizens were not provided with ID cardsand the Supreme Court intervened did voter IDscome into being

TN Seshan was the CEC of the Election Com-mission of India (ECI) then (1990-1996) and mostof the electoral reforms in the country today arecredited to him A civil servant from the 1954 IASbatch he held key positions in different govern-ment departments before assuming the portfoliothat won him plaudits and criticism alike

Seshan took over the ECI at a time when elec-tion malpractices like coercion of voters imper-sonation irregularities in electoral rolls andmisuse of government funds for campaigns wererampant With a disciplined and ruthless ap-proach Seshan revived the Model Code of Con-duct (a set of rules) for political parties andcandidates

First he set some ground rules for candidates tofollow during elections All candidates were askedto submit details of election expenditures to theECI a slab was fixed on allowable campaign ex-penses graffiti convoys and loudspeakers werebanned during campaigning and inflammatorycampaign speeches that may wrongly influencevoters were monitored To make the electionsaccessible to the common man polling stationswere relocated to convenient distances tight se-curity was deployed in booths awareness cam-paigns were held election processes werevideotaped and ndash as a first - election observerswere appointed to report on wrongdoings

Often attracting the ire of political parties forhis iron-fist rules TN Seshan is said to havebrought a radical change to the electoral processesof the country He paved the way for conductinglsquofree and fairrsquo elections as enshrined by the consti-tution in its truest sense

The changemaker

Anjana Krishnan

VASUDEVAN MUKUNTH

HRD MinisterI will first demand Rs 1000 crore forconstruction of houses for the poor Weshould assign some people to help andeducate the farmers I would also joinhands with UNESCO and ILO for helpingthe masses

Marshini GaneshGrade VIII Primrose School

Prime MinisterI as Prime Minister should be supported byan absolute majority of my own partyotherwise selfish small parties will notallow us to work for the betterment of thecountry We must revolutionise agricultureand make sure all the fertile lands are usedto produce food grains to avoid World WarIII for food

Roshini VGrade VIIIShemford Futuristic

SchoolHosur

Rural Development MinisterMost of Indias population lives in thevillages and they can contribute more tothe national income rather than urbanareas So the developmental processshould start from the villages

Sandra ShahanaSobha Icon HSS Moolamcode

Tourism MinisterI wil build government cottages neartourist spots for lodging Free waterrefreshment stalls should be setup intourist spots Tourist spots would bemaintained well Patrol Police would beappointed for security at tourist spots

GGSuganClass VIIIBVMHSS Gobichettipalayam

Prime MinisterI will make English the medium ofeducation starting from kindergartenNext prioritise the transition from nuclearpower to safer renewable energy sources

TANanthinyClass IX AUPET Chinmaya Vidyalaya

MHSS Tirunelveli

Head of Education DeptI will ensure the corporate sector compulsorily adopts a school and helpsthem to improve their facilities Suchindustries can be rewarded with taxdeducations subsidies etc

PonAtshayamadhi

Class IX AUPET Chinmaya VidyalayaMHSS Tirunelveli

Sports MinisterI would make sports popular right fromchildhood People who have extra talent incertain games will remain engaged inpracticing only for that game and learningtextbooks will stand only next Corruptofficials will immediately be fired orsuspended Every game would be givenequal importance Highly esteemed coachesfrom around the world will be brought in todevelop every game

PLSriramClass XI Cheran MHSS Karur

External Affairs MinisterI will strive to improve the foreign trade ofIndia by maintaining close ties with othercountries As India follows a policy of non-alignment we should maintain neutralitytowards all the countries We must also tryto solve all issues through bilateral talks anddiscussions

JMukheshwarClass X Good Shepherd EM

School Nandyal

Tourism MinisterI will seek to create awareness among theyouth by conducting SPIC MACAYs andworkshops that will revive the lost interestin culture We should encourage all theregional festivals by granting funds to themAlso constitute a panel to identify forgottentourist spots

KVN GokulSainik School Korukonda

Environment and Forests MinisterI will order pollution checks be conductedacross the country twice a year All the Stategovernments should plant more treesidentify the endangered species of flora andfauna and construct nurseries and parks topreserve them

U Siva GaneshClass XI Sainik School Korukonda

Vizianagaram

Law MinisterI will make the judiciary more people-friendly The number of working days of thecourts should be increased and theappointment of judges must also be donewithout undue delay

Asmitha SwaminathanClass IX PSBB Chennai

I want to behellipAcross5 Number of members in thecurrent ECI (5)6 People appointed by the ECI tokeep a watch on possiblemalpractices occurring duringelections (9)7 Number of years the ElectionCommissioner of India holdsoffice (3)11 Person monitoring electionwork in a state (5 9 7)

Down1 The official in a constituencywho oversees all processes in anelection ndash from issuing publicnotices to declaring the results(97)2 A process of castingcountingvotes again under certaincircumstances (6)3 Using electronic systems tocast and count votes (10 6)4 The official responsible forproper conduct of polls at the

polling station (97)8 Process of selecting arepresentative to a post whichhas fallen vacant during thegovernmentrsquos term (2 8)9 The compartmentstructure inwhich a voter casts hisher vote(75)10 HeShe appoints the ElectionCommissioner of India (9)12 Voter ID card is also known as_________ in abbreviated form (4)

August 1959 An archival picture of EMS Namboodiripad former Chief Minister ofKerala leading a street protest against the dismissal of his ministry by the Centre In1957 Namboodiripad led the Communist Party of India to victory in Keralarsquos firstassembly elections He consequently became the only Communist leader in the countryto head a popularly elected governmentHowever the introduction of Land Reform and Education Bills by his government soonsparked a major controversy Ownership rights were changed to ensure an equaldistribution of land among the landless Administration of educational institutions was tobe increasingly state controlled These proposals created panic among the landowningcommunities of Kerala especially Nairs and Syrian Christians The aggrieved stakeholders backed by the Indian National Congress launched violent protests against thestate machinery and Namboodiripadrsquos government was summarily dismissed by theCentral Government imposing Presidentrsquos rule Soon after a state election wasdeclared Though the Congress won with a majority under the United Front theCommunist party was the biggest gainer in terms of votes Kerala long since has beenone of the few states in the country where the Left has had a strong presence

BY NITYA MENON

WRITE TO USThe ECI has received a lot of complaints that Opinion Polls conducted by the media caninfluence who a person votes for Do you think that opinion polls should bebanned Send in your 100-word responses to schoolpollsthehinducoin (SubjectOpinion Poll) with your name and details The best responses will feature in nextweekrsquos Poll Booth page

Identify them and tell us the connection Send your responses to schoolpollsthehinducoin (Subject Link) with your name and details

Last weekrsquos answer Nitish Kumar Lalu Prasad Yadav and MamataBanerjee All three have been Union Railway Ministers

Congratulations Siddharth Pandey class VIII Kendriya Vidyalaya Bel-gaum for sending us the right answer

The two phrases shown below are connected in some way

Ans

wer

sA

cros

s5

Thr

ee6

Obs

erve

rs7

Six

11 C

hief

Ele

ctor

al

Off

icer

Dow

n1

Ret

urni

ng o

ffic

er2

Rep

oll

3 E

lect

roni

c vo

ting

4 P

resi

ding

off

icer

8 B

y-el

ecti

on9

Pol

ling

boo

th10

Pre

side

nt12

EP

IC

SOURCE NATIONAL SAMPLE SURVEY ORGANISATION

Compiled by ANJANA KRISHNANCrossword generated using Crosswordlabs

CMYK

VZ-VZ

THE HINDU IN SCHOOL I WEDNESDAY I MARCH 5 I 2014

2

One of the biggest issues every Indi-an government grapples with is pov-erty Our ministers are charged withbringing down poverty levels in a sus-tainable way - for those below thepoverty line by ensuring access tofood healthcare and subsidies andfor those above the poverty line bynot disrupting their means of living Over the years there have beenmany ways of measuring povertyAmong them the Tendulkar line de-fines that poor people are those whoearn less than Rs 2720day in ruralareas and Rs 3333day in urban ar-eas It is named for the committeeheaded by economist Suresh Tendul-kar who came up with the numbers Lifting people out of poverty is notas easy as getting them a job In ruralareas 168 per cent of agriculturallabourers and 76 per cent of regularworkers are still below the povertyline despite having work In fact littlemore than 65 per cent of agricultural

labourers still earn less than $2 aday A similar situation persists inurban areas

So in India having work is no guar-antee against poverty In fact giventhat India has 841 million peopleearning less than $2day we are anation of the working poor

GaribiHatao

Main nahiHum