State keeps losing funds worth crores

STATE WHERE CIVIC AMENITIES ARE IN A SHAMBLES WILL LOSE OVER ₹4,000 CRORE FROM 2015 TO 2020 IF PANCHAYAT POLLS REMAIN ON HOLD IN THE NAME OF SECURITY

JAMMU: As the local bodies election remain in Jammu and Kashmir are not being held since 2010, the economically backward state keeps losing rural development funds worth crore of rupees.

The last panchayat elections were held in April-May 2011, which witnessed an all time high turnout of 80% and these were conducted after a gap of almost 33 years. The elected panchayats completed their five-year term in July 2016.

Similarly, the last elections to urban local bodies (ULBs) were held in January-February 2005 and their term ended in 2010.

There are 4,490 panchayats (2,369 in Kashmir and 2,121 in Jammu) while there are at least 35,096 panch wards (18,785 in Kashmir and 16,311 in Jammu) with an electorate of around 57 lakh.

“The state where civic amenities still remain in shambles will lose over ₹4,000 crore from 2015 to 2020 if panchayat polls remain on hold in the name of security,” home department official said.

In the absence of elected ULBs, the state government was not provided ₹350 crore during 2016-2017, he said.

Former governor NN Vohra during his tenure had repeatedly asked the then PDP-BJP government to conduct panchayat elections at the earliest.

“With Panchayat polls high on his list of priorities, Vohra, on November 4 2017, had promulgated an ordinance — Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Ordinance, 2017 — to facilitate the poll process,” the official said.

On January 11 in 2018, the then PDP-BJP government had presented a maiden panchayat budget to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore to make institutions of local governance fully functional.

AJKPC CRITICISES POLITICAL PARTIES

All Jammu and Kashmir Panchayat Conference (AJKPC) chairman Shafiq Mir squarely blamed political parties in the state.

“They don’t want to decentralise powers at the grassroots level. On one pretext or the other, these political parties try to defer elections to the local bodies because they don’t want to share power with the people,” he said.

Hurriyat leadership in Kashmir comprising Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik recently called for a boycott of the polls scheduled for October 1.