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| Governor's Admin silent on elections to 2nd, 3rd tier of civic elections | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Mar 3: The Governor led state administration has apparently surrendered before political parties by maintaining silence over holding elections to 2nd and 3rd tier of Panchayati raj institutions after lapse of over three months, since the conclusion of elections for Ist tier.
As per Panchayat Raj Act of J&K, after the conclusion of elections for panchayats (Ist tier) the notification for conduct of elections for 2nd tier (Block Development Council) must be issued after one month.
The elections to third tier (District Planning Development Board headed by a Chairman) are followed by the elections to 2nd tier.
"It is almost three months, since the elections for panchayats were held in the first week of December, there is no notification for further elections", Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Panchayat Conference Shafiq Mir said.
He further said that it was quite surprising that before holding elections for 2nd and 3rd tier, the State Administrative Council (SAC) headed by Governor, has decided to conduct elections for 6 seats of Member of Legislative Assembly (MLC) reserved for Panchayats and Local bodies which is 4th tier.
"The elections for panchayts has been held on non-party basis then how the government can conduct elections for MLC on political party basis", Mir said.
President of JK Panchayat Conference Anil Sharma said that in the last 70 years, Block Development Council (BDC) as well as DPDB were not in place as the elections for both the institutions were not held.
He further said that they have sought time from Governor SP Malik to discuss about the issue of conducting elections for 2nd and 3rd tier.
Both the leaders of Panchayat Conference were in unison, over the attitude of political parties. They were of the opinion that third tier elections would elect the chairman of District Planning Development Board (DPDB) but all MLAs of the district will be merely members in the DPDB while Deputy Commissioner will be secretary.
"The powers of Chairman of DPDB will be equivalent to a cabinet Minister and it will only diminish the powers of MLAs, so all political parties and their representatives didn't want elections for 2nd and 3rd tier due to threats of decentralization of their power", the Conference leaders said.
Sources said that the political parties were uninterested for strengthening of the panchayati raj institutions, so they have been overtly or covertly trying to postpone the elections indefinitely. "The inaction of governor administration to hold elections only reflects submission of government towards the whims and fancies of political parties", sources said.
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