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| Determined Mehbooba ridicules NC leadership | | Empowering Panchayats | | NEHA
JAMMU, Oct 1: The only political party in the state whose stand on the issue of empowerment of panchayats has always been consistent is perhaps the People's Democratic Party (PDP). No one is suggesting that the stand of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Jammu & Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) has been ambivalent. It's not. Both the parties have been favouring 73rd constitutional amendment, which not only transfers some real powers from the government to the elected panchayats but also places at their disposal some money needed for meeting the immediate local needs of people. The only difference is that the PDP leadership has made empowerment of panches, sarpanches and panchayats the cornerstone of its speeches, statements and press conferences. It has been raising the issue almost everyday and mobilizing public opinion across the state against the Omar Abdullah-led government. The PDP terms the state government as "anti-people", "anti-democratic", "corrupt" and insensitive.
The truth, in short, is that the PDP has put its whole weight behind the empowerment the-panchayats-movement forcing the ambivalent Congress, which is in the government, to also take the plunge and assure the agitating and unprotected panches and sarpanches that it is with them. Remember, only the other day, the JKPCC president Saif-ud-Din Soz announced that his party will support the PDP-sponsored Private Member's Bill seeking some real changes in and democratization of the outdated and toothless Jammu & Kashmir Panchayati Raj Act. The PDP has reportedly submitted the Bill to the concerned authorities.
The PDP leadership is not only educating public opinion on this issue of great import, but is also using each and every opportunity that comes its way to expose the duplicity of the NC leadership, especially those who control the government and the party. Take, for example, what PDP president and Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Mehbooba Mufti said yesterday to expose the NC leadership. Addressing a public meeting in Reasi district, she not only ridiculed and snubbed the NC-led coalition government for "denying powers to panchayat institutions" but also questioned the very "rationale behind 'not implementing' 73rd amendment of the Constitution". "If it could 'introduce' an anti-terror law in the state, there should be no problem in bringing in the Panchayat law…The NC-led government had been the first one to implement POTA even before it was enacted by the Centre, now it is saying that Central law for panchayat empowerment is against the State," she said to set the record straight. She accused the state government of "denying" what is the legitimate due of the panchayat institutions. She did not stop just there. She went on to say that "encouraging nepotism and corruption in administration are the only achievements of the decades long mis-governance of the successive NC regimes in the state" and that the "NC is running the government as its personal empire."
It was clear from what Mehbooba Mufti said that the PDP has been working on two fronts. It has been educating the public opinion about the issue and it has been exposing the double-speak and double-standards of the NC. It is this methodology that has left the Congress with no other option but to take on its ally on the issue of empowerment of panchayats. She and her colleagues are keeping the pot boiling and this augurs well for the future of local-self governing institutions. |
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