Page 90 - PR Communication Age January-June2020

ing. So far we have induction cooking pass) and the matriculate (10th pass) thanks to an enabling provision in their
which takes long. Can we have fast levels with a common curriculum. relevant state laws.
cooking mechanisms to replace cook- Based on their CET score, the candi-
ing gas because that is an imported dates may have to take additional ex- A senior EC officer said the single vot-
product?,” Goyal said at a virtual event aminations at the agency level. ers’ list suggestion of the poll panel
organised by the Council on Energy, dates back to the 1999 and that it
Environment and Water. NRA will have representatives from would not be correct to link it to an-
the railways ministry, finance ministry, other pending proposal of the govern-
This, he said, will give a leg up to the the Staff Selection Commission, Rail- ment for simultaneous polls. “As far as
country’s Atmanirbhar Bharat mission way Recruitment Board and the Insti- simultaneous polls are concerned, all
and provide an opportunity for domes- tute of Banking Personnel Selection, a bodies -- the Law Commission, parlia-
tic manufacturing besides leading to government release said. mentary standing committee and NITI
savings and lower carbon emissions as Aayog -- that have studied and made
there are 280 million homes which Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the recommendations on the issue, have
need cooking. CET will eliminate multiple tests and confined themselves to examining si-
save precious time as well as re- multaneous polls to the Lok Sabha and
Commenting on innovations in renew- sources. “This will also be a big boost state assemblies. They did not go into
able energy, he said there is scope in to transparency,” he tweeted after the the simultaneous polls to the third tier
many sectors including cold storage, Cabinet meeting. – local bodies – at all,” said a govern-
small textile powerlooms and railways. ment officer.
Govt mulls single voters'
Hiring in Rlys PSBs now via Law Commission in its draft report on
list for polls at all levels simultaneous polls released in August
common test
Moving towards adoption of a single 2018, had stated: “So far as the third-
The Union Cabinet gave its nod to set electoral roll for polls at all levels – tier institutions are concerned, their
up a National Recruitment Agency number is too large and conduct of
parliamentary, assembly and local –
(NRA), which will conduct a common election to the same is primarily a
eligibility test (CET) for all non-gazet- the Narendra Modi government has State subject. As per the Constitution,
ted posts, including Group B and Group begun discussions on the enabling le- the elections to the third tier institu-
gal changes that may be required.
C (non-technical) jobs, setting in mo- tions are directed and controlled by
tion a major move aimed at streamlin- their respective State Election Com-
That a recent meeting comprising se-
ing government recruitment. missions. Therefore, it would be ex-
nior officials of PMO and Election Com-
mission of India (ECI) decided that the tremely challenging, if not impossible,
Under the new system, around 25 mil- to synchronise and align election sched-
lion aspirants, who appear for sepa- Cabinet secretary would hold talks with ules of third-tier with that of the House
rate, multiple examinations to join the state chief secretaries to persuade of the People and State Legislative
more than 125,000 government jobs them to make relevant changes in their Assemblies”.
every year, will have to take a single own state laws governing local body
online exam whose score will be valid polls, to allow adoption of ECI rolls for At the meeting comprising the Cabinet
for a period of three years and will panchayat/municipal elections. secretary and representatives of the
serve as a preliminary screening mark PMO, law ministry, panchayati raj and
for all eligible posts across various cen- While ECI is empowered by Article 324 EC, two options – first, a Constitutional
tral government agencies. of the Constitution to hold polls to the amendment to Article 243K and Ar-
Lok Sabha and state assemblies, for ticle 243ZA to make it mandatory for
Officials said that under the new CET which a common ECI voter list is used, SECs to adopt ECI rolls and second,
system, no limit on the numbers of SECs derive their powers from Article getting states where ECI voters list is
attempts will be imposed on the can- 243K and 243ZA to prepare rolls for not in use currently, to enable the
didates taking the exam. They added local body polls. However, SECs of al- same by revising their own relevant
that the test will be conducted for the most 22 states are known to rely on ECI Acts, were discussed. The consensus
graduate, higher secondary (12th rolls for conduct of third-tier polls, favoured the latter. T

90 PR COMMUNICATION AGE January - June 2020