Govt sets Panchayat elections process into motion

CEO asked to update rolls by Nov 5

Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Oct 27: In a major move, the State Government has again decided to go ahead with the Panchayat elections and asked the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Jammu and Kashmir to update electoral rolls of all Panchayats by November 5. The Government was in the process of issuing an Ordinance to designate CEO Shaleen Kabra as Election Authority for conducting the elections in the absence of State Election Commission.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the Government has written to the CEO J&K to update the electoral rolls of Panchayats by November 5 to help it initiate process for holding Panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir, which were pending for last about one and a half years now as the Panchayats had completed their term in June 2016.
Previous attempt of the State Government to hold Panchayat elections in April this year hadn’t materialized as the Election Commission of India had suddenly announced by-elections to Srinagar and Anantnag Lok Sabha seats prompting the Government to defer Panchayat elections.
Sources said the CEO J&K, whose Department was busy with annual summary revision of electoral rolls, which have to be published in first week of January 2018, has assured the State Government that it would update and publish Panchayat rolls on November 5.
Another major requirement of the State Government for holding Panchayat elections is constitution of the State Election Commission (SEC). As per the J&K Panchayat Raj Act, the SEC has to be constituted to hold the elections. However, in absence of the SEC, the Government has decided to issue an Ordinance through the Governor to designate CEO J&K Shaleen Kabra as the SEC.
Earlier also when the Panchayat election process was initiated, the State Government had promulgated an Ordinance through the Governor designating the then CEO J&K Shantmanu as the Election Authority for Panchayat polls. However, the Ordinance has now expired and the Government is in the process of issuing the fresh Ordinance.
“Until the Ordinance is issued and present CEO is designated as the SEC, the process for Panchayat elections can’t move forward,” sources said.
As per the Government proposal, if everything goes well, the Panchayat elections can be held in hilly districts by the start of December and in the plains in the end of same month. Slight delay in the process could push the elections to March-April next year. However, according to sources, the Government would take a call on timing of the elections after taking into account various aspects including security related issues and deployment of para-military and police personnel for smooth conduct of the polls.
Sources said delimitation of Panchayats had already been completed in March-April when the election process was initiated. The Government had also decided to do away with the process of Sarpanch constituencies. Elections will be held only for Panches, who will elect the Sarpanch among them.
Sources said 280 new Panchayats have been added in the State after delimitation, taking total number of existing Panchayats to 4378. There were 4098 Panchayats in the State when last elections were held to them in 2011. The number of Panch segments has gone up by about 4000, taking total number of Panch constituencies to 33,402. There were 29,402 Panch segments in the State prior to delimitation.
Sources said that newly carved out Panchayats and Panch segments have already been added to the existing list. The SEC and the Rural Development Department had undertaken comprehensive exercise for delimitation of Panchayats in March-April this year.
The Panchayat elections were last held in March-April 2011 after a gap of near four decades. The Panchayats were constituted in May-June 2011 and they completed their term in June 2016. However, the Government didn’t initiate the process to hold elections to Panchayats in time, which led to completion of their tenure. Nearly one and a half years have already elapsed without any elected Panchayats in the State.
Due to delay in the elections to Panchayats, the Central Government has stopped certain funding to Jammu and Kashmir especially the amount that has to be spent only through the elected Panchayats.
The Urban Local Bodies elections have been pending for more than seven years now.
The ULB elections were last held in January-February 2005 and the elected Municipalities had completed their five-year term in March 2010. However, since then, neither the previous National Conference-Congress nor the present PDP-BJP Government made any efforts to hold Municipal elections in the State.

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