Udaipur: Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat today (Dec 21, 2003) favoured simultaneous elections to Parliament, State Assemblies and local bodies.

"Sixty-eight per cent of the population want simultaneous elections," he said, inaugurating the 19th All India Sociological Conference.

The Vice-President traced the root cause of several social problems, including rampant corruption, to frequent elections.

Even after 56 years of Independence, elections were being fought on the issues of road, water and electricity, Shekhawat said. During his several visits abroad, he had noticed that even the countries which got freedom in 1958, 1964 or later did not have such problems.

He asked sociologists and social scientists to "diagnose social maladies" and prescribe solutions. They should chart out roadmaps for the Central and State Governments.

Expressing his "firm faith" in tribals' ability to conserve forests, Shekhawat said separation of tribals from the forests have led to many problems.

Asking sociologists to investigate into the cause of growing violence among tribals, he said, "The biggest challenge before the sociologists is to bring the tribals and those who have taken to violence into the mainstream of the society."