JPC Chairman PP Choudhary holds press conference over two-day meeting of key amendment bills

Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) Chairman PP Choudhary held a press conference in Dehradun on Wednesday.

This comes in connection with the two-day meeting of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill, 2024, and the Union Territory Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024, held from May 21-22.

Earlier today, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami participated in a dialogue program with the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the topic “One Nation, One Election” at a hotel on Mussoorie Road.

He welcomed and greeted the Chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee, PP Chaudhary and all the committee members.

The Chief Minister said that ‘One Nation One Election’ is an important initiative towards making our democracy more strong, effective and inclusive.

CM Dhami said, “Our election system has been effective and strong despite its diversity. However, because elections are held at different times, the code of conduct is imposed repeatedly, which is why all the work of the states comes to a standstill.

Whenever elections come, many personnel must be removed from their original work and put on election duty.”

The Chief Minister said, “For the last three years, due to the code of conduct of the Assembly, Lok Sabha, and Municipal elections in the state, the administrative machinery of the state was deprived of the process of taking policy decisions for 175 days. For a small and limited resource state, these 175 days are important from the point of view of governance.”

The Chief Minister said that the state government bears the entire expenditure burden of the assembly elections, and the central government bears the expenditure burden of the Lok Sabha elections.

“If both polls are held together, the expenditure burden on the state and the central government will be equally halved. By holding both the elections together, there will be a saving of about 30 to 35 per cent in the total expenditure.

This can be used in many areas of the state, such as health, education, road, water, agriculture, and women’s empowerment,” said CM Dhami.

The Chief Minister said that in Uttarakhand, the period from June to September is the time of rain along with the Chardham Yatra; in such a situation, many problems must be faced due to the election program.

He said, “The election process should not be scheduled during the last quarter of the financial year, from January to March. Due to the high school and intermediate board examinations in February-March, administrative resources are under additional pressure.”

He said that “One Nation, One Election” is important in hilly and difficult geographical conditions, such as in states like Uttarakhand.

The Chief Minister said that it is difficult to reach polling booths in remote areas of Uttarakhand, which is why the election process takes more time and resources.

He also said that it is also challenging for voters in mountainous areas to participate in elections, due to frequent elections, people’s inclination towards voting decreases, and the voting percentage also decreases.