Shadow Correspondent
Jammu, Oct, 03
Elected Sarpanches and Panches under the banner of All Jammu Kashmir Panchayat Conference (AJKPC) on Thursday staged a protest against the administration for its decision to hold elections to Block Development Councils (BDCs) without implementing the 73rd Amendment of Indian Constitution in J&K.
The protesting Panchayat members, led by AJKPC state president Anil Sharma, raised slogans in favour of their demands and said it would be grave injustice with the people of Jammu and Kashmir if the elections to BDCs were held without their participation.
“We appealed to the Jammu and Kashmir Governor and the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) J&K to defer the BDCs polls till the J&K gets the status of Union Territory. After October 31, all central laws will simultaneously be applicable in J&K, which will pave a way to hold elections to the BDCs on the pattern of 73rd Amendment to ensure the maximum participation of the people but unfortunately the Election Authority has ignored the genuine demand of the people,” Sharma said.
The AJKPC president regretted that the decision of holding BDC elections on the pattern of J&K Panchayati Raj Act 1989 had been taken in haste.
“The existing J&K Panchayati Raj Act is quite weak which can’t ensure the larger participation of people in BDC elections. The exercise of conducting these polls on existing provisions will be a futile and meaningless,” Sharma said, adding “the Election Authority should immediately defer these polls to wait for full implementation of 73rd Amendment in Jammu and Kashmir”.
Sharma also raised the issue of more than 50 percent reservation of BDCs for various categories of people. “Out of total 310 BDCs, at least 172 have been reserved for various categories which makes the cumulative reservation to over 55 percent which is not only constitutionally illegal but also the violative of court directive,” he said.
He appealed to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Satya Pal Malik to personally intervene into the matter and reconsider the decision of holding BDC polls without implementing all provisions of 73rd Amendment and with over 55 percent reservation of BDCs.
The AJKPC chief warned that if the authorities did not concede the genuine demand of elected Panchayat members to defer BDC polls, they would launch a state-wide campaign to support all independent candidates planning to contest against candidates of political parties to express their resentment.
Prominent elected Panchayat members who attended the press conference were Raja Singh, S. Ravinder Singh, Makhan Lal, Jeevan Lal Sharma, S. Yeshwant Singh, S Avtar Singh, Kashori Lal, Babu Ram, S. Sukhwant Singh, Ramesh Chander, Manmohan Lal, Dr Happy, Liyaqat Ali, Pritam Chand, Thagar Dass and Mustaq Ahmed.
