He was speaking after receiving the guard of honour from Zilla Armed Force, Home Guard Force, Seva Dal, Scouts and Guides and NCC cadets at the Republic Day celebrations on Saturday at Mahatma Gandhi ground in city.

The elections should be fair and non partisan. Moreover, the election commission is bringing about improvement in this area. However, the informed and the educated mass have been refraining from casting their votes.

This apathetic attitude of the public should be overcome  and they should actively participate in the election process, he observed.

“We have identified nearly two lakh bogus voters in the district and their names have been cancelled in the voters’ list. This is one of the steps in the direction of holding a transparent  and fair elections,” added Mr Umashankar.

There is a lot of scope for amendments in the Indian Constitution. It is due to this provision that the Constitution of our country is progressive and is based on equality, he added.

Democratic values

Several countries though  independent are reeling under severe economic crises and military dictatorship.

However, the democratic values enshrined in our Constitution has prevented India from being subjected to these forces, observed Mr Umashankar.

The strong values on which our Constitution is based has enabled India to create a mark for itself in the fields of science , information and technology, space, nano-technology and in the domains of art, literature, humanities and others, he recounted.

Also, present on the occasion were SP P Harishekaran, ZP CEO Manoj Kumar Meena and others.