An amendment bill to provide further reforms to the country’s electoral system, has received Parliament’s approval with the Lok Sabha adopting the measure today. The Rajya Sabha passed it earlier. The new legislation bans exit polls and the security deposit will be more than doubled in order to weed out non-serious candidates. The Security deposit of the candidates for Parliamentary elections will be increased to 25,000 rupees from 10,000 rupees. The increased security amount for S/C & S/T candidates will be 12,500 rupees. In respect of elections to state legislatures, the security deposit will get hiked to 10,000 rupees, but it will be 5,000 rupees for S/C & S/T candidates. The Law Minister, Mr. M. Veerappa Moily said that a nation-wide consultation will begin for setting up of electoral tribunals in the middle of next year. He said the endeavour would be that all election related cases are adjudicated by the tribunals in a time-bound manner. He said the issue of state funding for elections is under consideration of the Centre, although the state governments are lukewarm to the demand.