Arunachal Governor BD Mishra confers honour, calls for transparent democracy

OUR CORRESPONDENT

ITANAGAR: The 'State Democracy Award', instituted by State Election Commission (SEC), was conferred by Arunachal Pradesh Governor Brig (Retd) Dr B D Mishra at a function held here on the occasion of 'International Democracy Day' on Wednesday.

Longding received the 'Best Performing District' award, while Nafra under West Kameng district was awarded the 'Best Performing Sub-Division', in recognition of their excellent performances.

The Governor, who released a commemorative compendium -- Two decades of SEC -- along with its software disk, said that the day aims to promote government's role in maintaining transparent democracy among member nations of the UN charter.

"The elections, by universal suffrage, free, fair and secret voting are foundations of democracy as enshrined in Article 21 (3) of Universal Declaration of Human Rights," he said.

Promoting democratic values of justice, liberty, equality and dignity of individual is vital to make the democracy strong and stable, he said and added that abiding by fundamental duties mentioned in the Constitution of India is equally important.

Referring to the Gandhian ideal of 'Gram Swaraj', Mishra said that the 'Atma Nirbhar' movement, including 'Start up' and 'Self dependence', initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a shape to 'Gram Swaraj'.

Complimenting the SEC for holding free, fair and transparent elections, the governor called for strict discharge of duties by government officials towards the public by toeing seven golden obligations - transparency, accountability, probity, promptness, equal dispensation, audit and mid course correction.

"Mass public consciousness in the sense of democratic responsibility is equally important," he said.

Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein highlighted the evolution of political process in Arunachal Pradesh. While narrating the history of the political journey in the state from the time when the British-India government started to define the administrative jurisdiction by drawing an Inner Line in relation to the frontier tribes inhabiting the North Frontier Tract in the year 1875 to the formation of Statehood day in the year 1987. He also narrated the history of introduction of Panchayati Raj Sysytem in the year 1969 with the recommendation of Daying Ering Committee and evolution of State Legislative Assembly from the Agency Council.

Mein said that the State government is committed to protect and uphold the democratic values as enshrined in the Constitution of India and added that the state needs to have a state of the art building for State Election Commission and assured to keep fund provision in the next year's budget for the same which would become an important asset.

The Deputy Chief Minister pointed out that major reformation in the electoral process in India came during the time of former Chief Election Commissioner of India, T N Seshan with the introduction of photo identity card which has helped to streamline the electoral roll and had helped to do away with bogus voting and duplicity in voter lists. State Election Commissioner Hage Kojeen, in his address highlighted the reason for conceiving the award which would be given every year.

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