Each candidate set to get 2-3 security officers
sarpanches (panchayat heads) and panchs (members) have been killed over the last four years.
The local elections were due in January. But they were deferred after the People’s Democratic Party (Pdp)-bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition government told the Centre that the situation was not conducive for them.
The electoral process has been accelerated since the imposition of governor’s rule in June after the BJP withdrew support from the coalition government.
The Centre has been keen to hold the polls as part of its attempts to turn the tide in the state, where local militant recruitment has gone up since the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani in 2016.
Around 4,500 sarpanches and 29,000 panchs were elected in the last panchayat polls in 2011 when 75% voters had turned out to vote. The government had earlier expressed its inability to provide security to most panchayat members, citing their large numbers.
Jammu and Kashmir’s biggest indigenous militant group, Hizbul Mujahideen, as well as separatist Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL), have called for boycotting the elections.
The state’s two main regional parties, the National Conference and the PDP, have boycotted the polls over the Centre’s unclear stand vis-a-vis the attempts to undo the state’s special status.
A bunch of petitions challenging the validity of the Constitution’s Article 35A, which prevents outsiders from buying property in Jammu and Kashmir, are pending before the Supreme Court.
THE PROJECTS ARE IMPLEMENTED IN 111 DISTRICTS WITH FOCUS ON PEOPLE LIVING WITHIN 50 KMS OF THE INTERNATIONAL BORDER