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Do not curse darkness, light a little candle! True to this motto, seven apolitical NGOs in Chennai and five in Coimbatore, have decided to join hands and put up candidates for the coming elections to the municipalities and corporations in Tamil Nadu.

These organisations, with the Catalyst Trust and the Makkal Shakthi Eyakkam (People's Power Movement) in Chennai and Kural (Voice), Karam (Hand) and Siruthuli (Little Drops) in Coimbatore in the lead, are already into public causes with a number of achievements to their credit.

It is a happy augury that instead of feeling helpless over the repellent behaviour of the political class in the period between elections, citizens are mobilising themselves to instil good governance in local self-governing institutions.

Initially, the citizen groups will test the waters in 26 municipalities (Ambattur, Tiruvallur, Chengalpattu, Kancheepuram, Vellore, Ambur, Gudiyattam, Thruppaththur, Dharmapuri, Hosur, Krishnagiri, Chidambaram, Cuddalore, Virudhdhachalam, Namakkal, Thiruchengodu, Kumbakonam, Thanjavur, Thiruvarur, Sirkazhi, Thrumangalam, Aruppukkottai, Thuththukkudi, Virudhunagar, Perambalur and Dindigul) and five corporations (Coimbatore, Salem, Tiruchi, Madurai and Tirunelveli).

Under the banner of Citizens Alliance, a steering group of eminent persons in each municipality or corporation, will apply stringent criteria to the process of selection of candidates to ensure that they are of undisputed merit and honesty, and scrupulously non-partisan.

The Alliance will also ensure see to the unswerving adherence by nominated candidates to a salutary code of conduct aimed at preserving the purity and fairness of the elections, and binding them, on being elected, to fulfil, within specified time-frames, a set of essential commitments relating to the people's basic needs in line with their expectations.

We welcome the initiative and wish it Godspeed.

B. S. RAGHAVAN

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