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| Panchayat polls in few months: Omar | | |
Early Times Report
Jammu, Oct 20: Jammu and Kashmir is all set to go for Panchayat elections later this year or early next year, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has confirmed.
Holding Panchayat elections and democratic decentralization of powers to the grassroots institutions of governance has been a poll promise made individually by both ruling alliance partners, the Congress and the National Conference. However, the government has been dragging feet on the Panchayat elections on one or the other pretext. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had said in February this year that Panchayat elections shall be held immediately after the Lok Sabha elections but there was no follow-up after the general elections were over. The state is already losing Rs 550 crore annually after the Centre had stopped the grant in the absence of local bodies.
If today’s statement of the Chief Minister is anything to go by, the state may go the Panchayat elections in next few months, breaking an impasse of nine years. During a meeting with the visiting Congress general secretary and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, the Chief Minister informed that the coalition government is keen to hold Panchayat elections later this year or early next year.
Digvijay Singh who was on a private visit to Srinagar on the invitation of an NGO had a two hour luncheon meeting with the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah at Dachigam wherein the two leaders discussed various issues.
Sources said that the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah informed the visiting leader that he is working on holding the Panchayat Elections in the state by the end of this year or the beginning of the next year so as to involve the people at the grass root level in the process of development thereby making the delivery system more effective, efficient and accountable.
Digvijay Singh conveyed to the Chief Minister the Congress High Command’s commitment to work for better Jammu & Kashmir where peace and development ushers under the present coalition government headed by Omar Abdullah.
Last Panchayat elections were held in Jammu and Kashmir in 2000 “as the NC government believed in delegation of authority to field functionaries and to local bodies for improvement in service”, Rural Development Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar had said recently.
However, due to violence, the process could not be completed as out of 4,000 Panchayats, elections to 2,600 Panchayats were held. The process could not be completed as panchs, chowkidars and numberdars were killed.
Sagar said that holding Panchayat elections is the top agenda of this government. We are working on it and about 50 per cent ground and other work has already been done, he said adding that the report will be put before the Cabinet for approval later this year.
The government is committed to hold elections so that the participation of the people in their own development and regulatory activities is ensured.
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