CHENNAI: Poll manifestos are an integral part of Lok Sabha and Assembly elections through which parties take their vision, development programmes and policy promises to the voters. But in local body polls, which are the bedrock of grassroots democracy, political parties seldom release manifestos.
Activists and experts working for improving local governance are of the view that parties should come forward to release election manifestos for civic polls, particularly urban local body elections where all the posts are fought on party lines. In Kerala, parties release manifestos for local body polls. In Tamil Nadu, CPM had released manifestos in the past, but they have not done it yet this time. Meanwhile, Makkal Needhi Maiam founder Kamal Haasan released set of election promises for urban local bodies on Tuesday.
Stressing on the need for parties to release their poll vision documents, Dr G Palanithurai, former professor, Gadhigram Rural Institute, said, “TN political parties are not progressive and innovative. When there is a contest on party lines, there should be an election manifesto from each party. They should share their plan to reform local governance, innovative ideas, and how they would take their services to people.”
“But what prevents that from happening is the wrong notion about local bodies. The Constitution has declared that self-governance starts with local bodies. Political parties, except Left outfits, harbour the notion that local bodies are nothing but an implementing arm of the State government. They think that polls are being conducted just to fulfill a constitutional mandate,” Dr G Palanithurai added.
According to DS Sivasamy, president, Confederation of Organisations of Urban Development, “Through their manifestos, parties can explain how they can improve self-governance at grassroots level and devolve more powers and funds to local bodies. According to the Constitution, 18 responsibilities should be devolved to urban local bodies. Have the government extended them? Parties must make these issues as points of discussion by releasing their manifestos.”
Reiterating the importance of releasing manifestos, Nandakumar Siva, general secretary of Thannatchi, a movement working for local governance, told TNIE that elections to local bodies are far more important than general elections as they deal with issues faced by people in their everyday lives. “Several policy interventions are needed to improve the quality of local governance. Kerala has already mooted several initiatives. Parties should not think that local governance is all about providing streetlights and other basic amenities.”
Advocate M Loganathan, coordinator, Federation for Sustainable Development, a Coimbatore-based organisation, said perhaps political parties have been hesitating to release manifestos for local body polls as failed promises may come back to haunt them.
DMK spokesperson J Constantine Ravindran told TNIE “The DMK has given district-wise manifestos along with State-wide manifesto for the Assembly polls. The district-wise manifestos have promises for local bodies too. There is no need for a fresh manifesto for urban local bodies.” RM Babu Murugavel, AIADMK spokesperson, said “We never undermined the importance of local bodies as they are the basis for self-governance. Since the issues are different for each local body, it is not possible for a party to issue a State-wide manifesto or promises for local body elections.”
kamal’s promises
MNM founder Kamal Haasan released set of election promises for urban local bodies on Tuesday. The promises include supply of quality drinking water free of cost, installation of rainwater harvesting structures, constitution of area sabha (like grama sabha), laying of quality roads, smart dustbins in every street, etc.