Jammu: Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday chaired an All Party Meeting to discuss the issue of holding Panchayat Elections in the State.
Representatives of Peoples Democratic Party, National Conference, BJP, Congress, CPI(M), PDF, National Panthers Party, Awami Itihaad Party and DPN attended the meeting and put forth their suggestions.
The APM was earlier to be chaired by Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Abdul Haq Khan. However, Opposition parties like National Conference and Congress demanded Chief Minister to chair the meeting, underlining that it useless in her absence as she also holds the charge of Home department. The Government conceded to the proposal and Abdul Haq Khan made the announcement about the Chief Minister chairing the meeting in the legislative assembly.
The National Conference General Secretary Ali Mohammad Sagar, who lead the party delegation during the APM said that the situation for holding Panchayat polls in Jammu and Kashmir was not conducive as the chief minister Mehbooba Mufti herself has stated on the floor of the house. He however maintained that the ball was in the court of the government and that it has to take the final call over whether to defer or hold the polls on time in the state. “We put across our stand and now it is the government which has to see what measures are needed to be taken on ground,” Sagar said.
The ruling partner in coalition with PDP, BJP said it pressed for early Panchayat polls at the all party meeting A BJP leader there should be early Panchayat elections in the state. J&K Panthers Party said that it pressed for early Panchayat elections. “The ministers of the ruling government want to defer elections because they will never want decentralization of the powers,” a leader of the Panthers Party said.
According to reports, Indian Home Ministry has decided to deploy over 40,000 personnel of the central paramilitary forces for the panchayat elections. The decision, the reports said, was taken on the request of the state government and accordingly 300 companies of various Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) are being deployed for the polls.
Of the fresh battalions sanctioned for the task by the Home Ministry, the report said, 85 will be from the Central Reserve Police Force, 75 from the Border Security Force, 55 from the Central Industrial Security Force, 40 from the Sashastra Seema Bal and 45 from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police.
Apart from the fresh battalions, 101 training companies of these forces, already present in the state, will also be utilised for the panchayat elections, officials said.
In December last year, the government had said it would hold the panchayat elections from February 15. Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti had revealed the date after she met Governor N N Vohra in Jammu.
“During their half-an-hour long meeting, the Chief Minister informed the Governor about several important matters with regard to which the cabinet had taken decisions a few days back. She also informed about her government’s decision to commence panchayat elections from February 15, 2018,” an official release had said.
There are 4,378 panchayats in state. The number of panch constituencies is 33,402, 4,000 more than when panchayat elections were last held in 2011. In the panchayat elections, only panches will be elected directly by the people.
The elected panches in a panchayat constituency will in turn elect their respective sarpanches.
The panchayat polls were scheduled last year when their five-year term ended but the elections could not be held amid unrest in the Valley following the killing of Hizb-ul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8, 2016.
Last year also, the elections could not be held in view of unrest during most part of 2017.
The Governor had on November 4 last year promulgated an ordinance designating the state’s Chief Electoral Officer as State Election Commissioner for conducting the panchayat elections.
The ordinance was mooted by the Rural Development Department as there had to be an Election Commission in the state for holding the panchayat elections.
