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| Govt claims to strengthen democracy in UT | | Sobbing DDC chairperson punctures | |  Early Times Report
Jammu, Feb 2: On every platform at the national level, Jammu and Kashmir government seized all opportunities to highlight the establishment of the three-tier Panchayati Raj Institution as its “historic achievements” but the sobbing chairperson of the District Development Council (DDC) Kishtwar Pooja Thakur is reflecting the ground situation in the Union Territory.
What to say of involving Sarpanches or Block Development Councils (BDCs) heads in the development process even chairpersons of the District Development Councils (DDCs) have been sidelined in the present “Babu Raj” in J&K.
Instead of listening to the just and genuine grievances of the elected representatives of the people, the J&K government is rather brazenly stifling the voice of peoples’ representatives through oppressive means.
After gagging media for highlighting shortcomings of the administration, now the J&K government has shifted its focus on peoples’ representatives so that Babus will enjoy absolute power without any transparency and accountability.
For the last couple of weeks, the DDC chairperson of Kishtwar Pooja Thakur has been sitting on a dharna in Dachhan tehsil of Kishtwar district demanding jobs for locals at the under-construction 1,000-megawatt Pakal Dul hydroelectric power project.
At an altitude of 12,000 feet, with temperatures hovering around minus 5-6 degrees Celsius, she has been agitating for the people.
Senior officers visited Kishtwar and held interactions with the agitating people including DDC chairperson Pooja Thakur.
After two and half hours long meeting, the DDC chairperson was brokedown as authorities were not ready to listen to the grievances because some arrogant ‘Babus’ are finding it difficult to digest the empowerment of local self-government.
After the dissolution of the Legislative Assembly of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, DDC members are the only link between the administration and the people.
After the conduct of the first-ever DDC elections in J&K in December 2020, it was announced that power would be decentralized by empowering DDC members.
“Administration is not ready to listen to the grievances of the people. We are representatives of the people but those at the helm of the affairs are not ready to listen to us”, Pooja told The Early Times after meeting with officers to solve the issue.
“It appears that administration has decided to undermine institutions like DDC because those at the helm of the affairs are not ready to delegate the power. Bureaucrats want absolute power so they are not giving importance to peoples’ representatives”, she said and regretted that instead of giving importance to peoples’ grievances administration is working as agents of private companies. |
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