Mangalore : Speaking at an interaction programme organized at SDM College of Business Management, Lokayukta N. Santhosh Hegde urged everybody to exercise his/her right to vote to eliminate the role played by money in elections. He said that ideally voting should be made compulsory, adding that at least 90 percent of us must vote.
Further speaking about the importance of voting, he said that India is full of politically illiterate people who want to know why they should vote. Stating that such people have no business living in a democratic country, he said that one must vote for social, and not individual, benefits.
Stating that the people of DK should consider themselves lucky, he said that during his 4 and a half years as the Lokayukta, he learned the true meaning of the word “suffering” after witnessing the plight of people in rural Bijapur, Raichur, and Bagalkot, who are denied the basic amenities of life. The GDP growth that the government presents is the GDP of multi billionaires, not the poor, he remarked.
Regretting that the Panchayat Raj act has only taken bad politics and corruption to remote villages, he said that bureaucracy and politics are just twins and added that political representatives should not be given the power to transfer officers.