NEW DELHI, May 7: The much-hyped all-party meet called by the Election Commission (EC) to discuss electoral reforms turned out to be a exercise in arming the constitutional body with greater powers.

The day-long deliberations ended with the EC emerging with a number of its causes being endorsed by the major national and regional parties.

The first of these was the agreement on restricting the Commission to three members to avoid a dilution of its authority. Additionally, the EC's demand that the Constitution be amended to provide the same immunity and protection to the election Commissioners from being removed from office as is given to the Chief Election Commissioner. At present the CEC can only be removed by an impeachment by Parliament whereas the two commissioners can be removed by an administrative order.

The agreement by the parties on restricting the strength of the EC assumes significance in the background of moves by the previous government headed by H D Deve Gowda to convert the Commission into a five member body.

The meeting, attended by all seven national parties and 33 out of 38 state regional parties, also agreed that the two Commissioners should also be afforded the same security as that extended to Supreme Court judges.

Another significant decision reached by the meet was that the Commission would have an independent secretariat on the lines of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha and the Supreme Court. The funding for this should be a ``charge'' on the Consolidated Fund of India. ``This proposal found very wide acceptance, with most parties agreeing that the EC should be on a par with other high institutions of government,'' Chief Election Commissioner M S Gill said.

However, the Commission's proposal to scrap the institution of regional commissioners was struck down by the parties which felt that regional authorities also had a role to play. ``The parties felt the office of the regional commissioner is an enabling provision, so why knock it out,'' said Gill, emphasising that the Commission itself did not have any differences on this issue.

The EC was also thwarted on its proposal for wider powers to punish civil servants for misconduct during the polls. The broad consensus among the political parties was that there existed a whole body of law in the Constitution to deal with errant public servants, so a further extension of the Commission's powers was unnecessary.

The EC, however felt that unless these powers were afforded to the Commission it would not have the ``teeth'' to tackle officials at the district level.

The discussions also took up such long-pending issues as the allocation of time to different parties on the electronic media, revision of electoral rolls, use of electronic voting machines, election identity cards and allotment of election symbols to different parties.

Consensus doctrine

* Lok Sabha Speaker P A Sangma today moved a step further in evolving a ``consensus'' on national issues of importance in the 50th year of India's Independence and has suggested that a week-long special session of Parliament be convened in August in this regard.

Finding a positive response from the leaders of various political parties during his informal discussions in the recent past, Sangma has decided to hold a formal meeting on May 14 to decide the issue.

Prime Minister I K Gujral, has welcomed the step as it is in conformity with his ``consensus'' doctrine and help in resolving some of the basic problems being faced by the country.

There would be no question hour and other issues to be discussed during this special session except the one suggested during the May 14 meeting.

Population, poverty, employment and development are some of the subjects on which study papers would be prepared for discussion if a consensus is reached in this regard.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.