The election commission must come out with elaborate guidelines on the code of conduct for administrative decision making. The present code has so much ambiguity that whenever it comes into force, the administration is thrown completely out of gear and everything comes to a standstill, whether it affects voters or not. The code must specifically pave the way for all administrative decisions that do not affect voters directly. Running of an entire country cannot be held hostage whenever elections are announced. Such is the dread about breaking the code of conduct that bureaucrats and government officials in every state and at Centre are wary of touching any files; leave alone taking a decision on them. In fact, all they enjoy is a perfectly valid opportunity to not do any work until the elections are over.

Hundreds of issues — that are totally irrelevant as far as influencing voters goes — are waiting for the election commission’s nod before being decided. Action on these files has been stopped by the bureaucrats, to err on the side of caution and to stay well within the limits of the ambiguous EC guidelines. Nobody knows what can be done and what exactly is allowed during the period when the code is in force. The country has to be run and the development process cannot be halted for months altogether. Ambiguity in the code’s provisions gives ample and valid reasons to the government machinery to sit idle, even as the civil servants keep drawing their salaries, perks and other facilities. We have competent bureaucrats in the election commission as heads, who are known for their bold decision making. Let the designate CEC and his fellow colleagues decide that elections are no excuse to stop the development march for the entire nation.

... contd.