Shadow Correspondent
Jammu, Jan 07
All Jammu Kashmir Panchayat Conference (AJKPC), a frontline body of elected Sarpanches and Panches, on Tuesday extended full cooperation to the Election Commission and the UT administration for early conduct of elections to over 12,000 vacant Panchayat seats in Jammu and Kashmir.
The AJKPC said it was ready for elections to fill all the vacant Panchayat seats, particularly in Kashmir Valley, to further strengthen the grassroots level democracy.
“We welcome the decision of the Election Commission and the government to hold elections to over 12,000 vacant seats of Sarpanches and Panches in J&K. We hope that it would further strengthen the grassroots level democracy and restore the faith of the people in democratic institutions,” said Anil Sharma, AJKPC president while addressing a press conference here.
Flanked by the Sarpanches from Kashmir Valley, Sharma said the AJKPC, which always favoured strengthening of grassroots democracy and Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in J&K, wants early conduct of these polls which the people, especially from Kashmir, had been awaiting for the past of over one year.
“The people of Kashmir could not participate in these elections in 2018 due to boycott calls by the political parties and separatists, and threats from terror groups. These people had been suffering due to non-existences of Panchayats as the development activities have come to a complete halt,” the AJKPC president said.
Sharma said it was a welcome initiative of the Centre, particularly Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, to fill all vacant seats of Panchayats aimed at empowering the people at grassroots level.
“Every member of AJKPC and other elected Sarpanches and Panches of J&K will wholeheartedly support this decision of the government and the election commission. It will help the Panchayats, which were not constituted till date, to carry out development activities with the flow of funds,” the AJKPC leader said.
Sharma also appointed 10 coordinators for 10 districts of Kashmir Valley to encourage and motivate the people for their massive participation in the upcoming elections.
“These coordinators will encourage the people and create awareness among them about the benefits to be percolated at grassroots level after the conduct of Panchayat elections in their areas.
They will also make efforts to motivate aspiring candidates to contest these elections,” the AJKPC president said.
The leader urged the ADGP (Security) Muneer Khan and IGP Kashmir to provide security to all these 10 coordinators so that they can move freely and encourage the people for their participation in these elections.
“We will soon provide the list of names of these coordinators to the ADGP (Security) and IGP Kashmir with a request for adequate security to them,” Sharma said.
Ten coordinators comprised Ghulam Rasool Itoo, Coordinator Budgam, Bilal Ahmad Wani, Coordinator Anantnag, Manoj Pandita, Coordinator Pulwama, Riyaz Ahamd Bhat, Coordinator Kulgam, Mohammad Rafiq, Coordinator Kupwara, Irshad Ahamd Wani, Coordinator Baramulla, Mohammad Shafi, Coordinator Ganderbal, Nissar Ahmad Sofi, Coordinator Bandipora, Abdul Rashid, Coordinator Shopian and Nissar Ahmad Bhat, Coordinator Srinagar.
Prominent among those who attended the press conference included Des Raj Bhagat, Amjad Choudhary, Jatinder Singh, Ghulam Rasool Ganai, Jaan Mohammad, Mustaq Ahmad, Sansar Singh Jamwal, S. Ravinder Singh, Hans Raj Thakur, Aijaz Mehar, Abdul Karim Chad, Mohammad Maqbool Bhat.
