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| Govt on pins and needles as JMC, SMC cease to exist, says Zaffar | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Mar 4: Raising an important issue, Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) councillor Zaffar Javed Ahmad Khan today questioned the validity of JMC and Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC), saying the five-year-term of the two democratic institutions had expired in February this year.
For their revival through fresh elections, the government was on pins and needles, he asserted. Zaffar said by maintaining a silence on the issue of holding polls to the two corporations, the government wanted to gag them and did not want them to flourish. The two corporations came into existence in February 2005 and had completed their five-year-term, which meant that they now ceased to exist "legally", leading to a constitutional crisis, he added.
Citing the corporation constitution, published in J&K Municipal Corporation Act 2002, Zaffar said it was clearly mentioned in it that the corporations, unless dissolved before their full term under Section 404 of the Act, shall continue for five years from the date of their first meeting.
The Act, he said also states that elections to the Corporation shall be completed before the expiry of its duration specified in sub-section (1) or before the expiry of a period of six months from the date of its dissolution. Now, since the corporation was in no way dissolved midway and had completed its full five year term, the government ought to have held elections before February this year, he added.
He alleged that it was quite unfortunate that the state government, especially the housing and urban development ministry, did not bother to strengthen the democratic institutions and rather allowed their term to expire without conducting elections.
He said since both the corporations ceased to exist as per the Act, the government must clarify their status. Zaffar questioned the sanctity of the Constitution of Corporations in the absence of on time elections to them.
By not setting the election process in motion \before February, the NC-Congress government had made clear its intentions that it did not want to decentralise power, he alleged. He said it also indicated that the government was trying to gag the two democratic institutions.
Earlier, the government "ruthlessly" let the panchayats die by not holding elections to them, resulting in the lapse of central funds. He asked the government not to play with the sentiments of people and clarify its stands on the issue of polls to corporations and local bodies, which were functioning to the satisfaction of the people.
The two corporations had ensured maximum development which the government could not digest and deliberately allowed them to collapse, he alleged. It was unfortunate that instead of encouraging and strengthening them, the government had allowed the term of the two corporations to expire. Making of schools, colleges, hospitals, dispensaries, roads and other civic amenities come under the purview of corporations and the government needed to allow them to discharge their duties, he added. He demanded the intervention of prime minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi for the survival and development of JMC and SMC.
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