85-year-old retired teacher Mehar Chand Shastari is upset that polling booths for the municipal council election have been declared hypersensitive from security point of view as candidates ‘fight’ instead of ‘contesting’ elections, unlike earlier times.
He insisted on exercising his right to vote despite poor health as he wanted to contribute to the democratic process to elect people’s representatives in the lowest rung of the three-tier governance.
“Why should they say ‘I am fighting election’, whereas it’s a democratic process to constitute MC that is responsible for providing the facilities like safe drinking water, streetlight, sanitation and construction of infrastructure,” said Shastari, adding that it was his earnest desire to spend rest of his life in dignified environment.
He recollected that the town had to hunt for genuine aspirants for contesting elections to the civic body over three decades ago. “Being an MC used to be a responsibility and only those persons used to contest election who could afford time and expertise for getting development projects implemented without any allurement,” said Shastari, calling upon prospective councillors to make optimum utilisation of resources at their disposal for the welfare people.
The retired octogenarian argued that less literate councillors should take the help of former councillors and educated activists, so that they could study instruction manuals and Municipal Act that is required for getting needful done for residents of their wards.
Shastari said several issues related with scarcity of funds and resources could be resolved by spreading awareness about conservation of resources and reduction in generation of garbage at the point of generation.