Early Times Report
Jammu, June 9: The hopes of Panchayat representatives about empowerment of Panchayats have almost dashed to the ground, as they have been getting no response from the Governor's administration too.
The Panchayat representatives have so far not got an appointment from the Governor's secretariat to discuss their issues, especially empowerment of the Panchayats.
"I have forwarded repeated emails, memorandums to the Governor secretariat. More than ten times, I called the Governor office on phone, but I failed to get an appointment," said Anil Sharma, president of All JK Panchayat Conference.
He said that it has been more than five months since the conclusion of first tier of Panchayati Raj institutions and they have been waiting for the constitution of second and third tier of the Panchayati Raj. But a formal notification has not been issued by the government so far.
"We want to discuss the inordinate delay in holding of elections to Block Development Council (BDC) and District Development Planning Board with the Governor," Sharma said.
Sources informed Early Times that most of the political parties, cutting across party lines, have not been in favour of empowerment of Panchayats in Jammu and Kashmir.
"Not even a single political party has extended support to the Panchayat representatives in their demand for empowerment of Panchayats," the Panchayat representatives said.
They added that all political parties appeared united over the non-empowerment of Panchayats. "If the second and third tier of Panchayati Raj institutions will be in place, the legislators have an impression of getting their power decentralized", a politician said, adding that it could be the pressure from the politicians that the incumbent government has failed to issue notification for the holding of the elections for second and third tier.
An official of Chief Electoral Office Jammu and Kashmir, pleading anonymity said that though they have to hold the elections, but so far they have not got any notification from the government to hold the elections.
Director Panchayats, Sheikh Nazir, said the process for making of electoral rolls for the holding of second and third tier of elections has been under process.
But contradicting the claims of the Director, a Panchayat representative alleged that the Panchs and Sarpanchs were the electors in the elections and their names were already with the Block Development Officers.
"These are mere excuses and it appears that even the Governor administration is not interested in holding elections. This attitude is similar to that of the elected governments," the representative added. |
