VISAKHAPATNAM: Lok Satta founder president Jayaprakash Narayan has called for direct elections to chief ministers (CMs) to ensure accountability and promote competence and integrity in government.
He was delivering Dr YS Rajasekhar Reddy memorial lecture presided over by Uttarandhra Charcha Vedika convener Konathala Ramakrishna. Narayan said, “Absence of expertise and day-to-day compromises needed to retain legislative support lead to sub-optimal decisions undermine rule of law and growth and promote a culture of partisanship, corruption and cynicism.
Rational decision-making, good governance and rule of law are casualties in such a system, he said. If the leader is elected for a fixed term, he or she does not have to yield to daily pressures of legislators, he said.