Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, May 14: The National Conference-Congress Co-ordination Committee today deferred a decision on appointment of chairpersons to more Corporations/Boards in run up to next year’s Assembly elections as some of the members were of the view that the profit and loss making Corporations/Boards should be identified first before going in for the appointments.
The six members Co-ordination Committee that met at Hari Niwas in Srinagar for about one and a half hours from 5 pm, didn’t reach a consensus on incorporation of major provisions of 73rd amendment of the Constitution of India into Panchayati Raj Act of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Co-ordination Committee failed to take any firm decision on holding Urban Local Bodies (ULB), Block Development Council (BDC) elections and appointment of more members to the Public Service Commission.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had last week asked PCC (I) chief Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz, who heads the Co-ordination Committee of two Alliance partners, to call its meeting immediately to take decisions on pending issues.
The Co-ordination Committee meeting was attended by Prof Saif-ud-Din Soz, Chairman, Deputy Chief Minister Tara Chand and Mangat Ram Sharma, former Deputy Chief Minister (all from Congress), Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather, Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar and CAPD and Transport Minister Choudhary Mohammad Ramzan (all from National Conference).
Reliable sources told the Excelsior that the Co-ordination Committee discussed appointment of eight political leaders as chairpersons of Corporations/Boards as a run up to next year’s Assembly elections as the Alliance partners felt that the chairpersons would be in more comfortable position to win the election with Ministers of State status.
As per the proposal, while some of the chairpersons would be from among the legislators, other would be political leaders of the two parties, who were likely to be fielded by the two partners in next year’s Assembly elections. The NC and Congress have decided to share four posts each of chairpersons of the Corporations/Boards if the proposal matured.
Though both the parties appeared to be in favour of the proposal, which would put heavy burden on the State exchequer, some of the Co-ordination Committee members were of the view that the chairpersons should be appointed only for profit making Corporations and Boards, which should be identified before approving the proposal.
“After the proposal is through, both the parties would submit four names each for the appointment,’’ sources said, adding that both the coalition partners were in hurry on the appointments as they wanted to give the chairpersons enough time to tour their constituencies with ‘political power’ to win the next year’s Assembly elections.
It may be mentioned here that in addition to 25 Ministers, the State already has six chairpersons/vice chairpersons of the Commissions and Boards, which included three each from National Conference and Congress.
They are Kafeel-ur-Rehman, chairman Pahari Welfare Advisory Board (Cabinet Minister’s status), Radhey Shyam Sharma, chairman Kissan Welfare Advisory Board, Shamima Firdous, chairperson, State Commission for Women (all three from National Conference), Swaran Lata, chairperson, Scheduled Caste Welfare Board, Khem Lata Wakhloo, chairperson, Social Welfare Advisory Board and Kuldeep Raj Verma, chairman Backward Classes Commission (all from Congress).
While all three incumbent chairpersons of National Conference were MLAs, none of the Congress heads of the Boards were legislators.
Worthwhile to mention here that Mr Rather, one of the members of the Co-ordination Committee had raised a massive hue and cry within and outside the Assembly as the Leader of Opposition when previous Congress-PDP coalition Government had mooted a similar proposal for appointment of chairpersons of Corporations/Boards describing the decision as “political corruption’’.
Sources said the Co-ordination Committee discussed the major provisions of 73rd amendment, which could be incorporated in Panchayati Raj Act of Jammu and Kashmir. However, a consensus eluded the Co-ordination Committee as the Congress wanted majority of provisions of the amendment to be incorporated in the State Act while the National Conference favoured very few provisions.
The Congress had initially been demanding implementation of 73rd amendment of the Constitution of India in Jammu and Kashmir in letter and spirit. However, after a categorical no by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to the implementation of 73rd amendment, the Congress had diluted its stand and asked for implementation of major provisions of the amendment within the State Panchayati Raj Act, a demand the NC had acceded to.
The Congress had set up two Committees—one headed by Ravinder Sharma, MLC and another by Ghulam Ahmad Mir, MLA (now Tourism Minister) to study the provisions of 73rd amendment for incorporation in the Panchayati Raj Act before holding the Block Development Council (BDC) elections.
Later, the Law Ministry had set up another Committee to study the provisions, which too had submitted its report. However, according to sources, the Co-ordination Committee failed to take a decision on the provisions, which would be incorporated in the Panchayati Raj Act.
“Unless the Panchayati Raj Act is amendment and provisions of 73rd amendment incorporated in it, there is no possibility of holding the BDC elections as the provision of reservation in the posts of BDC chairpersons would come only through the amendment—either in the form of an ordinance or legislation,’’ sources said.
The Government had ordered the BDC elections in October, 2012, which were scheduled for November 7 but the process was cancelled midway as the Congress was of the view that the elections would be meaningless in the absence of reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, women and SC women.
The Panchayat elections were completed in July 2011 and the BDC elections had to be held within a month after the notification of the names of Sarpanchs and Panchs. However, even when the Panchayats were about to complete two years, the BDC elections were nowhere in sight.
It may be reported here that 143 chairpersons of the BDCs had to be elected by Panchayat members.
Sources said the discussion on incorporation of major provisions of 73rd amendment of the Constitution of India in the Panchayati Raj Act in the Co-ordination Committee remained inconclusive.
On Urban Local Bodies elections for which the Congress had declared that they would be held before June 30, the Co-ordination Committee said they should be held at the earliest but fixed no date.
Sources, however, confirmed that there was no possibility of holding the Municipal elections before June 30 as only one and a half month was left for the deadline, which was not enough for completion of the electoral process. Moreover, the Government was of the view that tourist season has set-in in the Kashmir Valley and Shri Amarnath yatra was due to start on June 28.
Sources said the issue of appointment of four members of the PSC once again favoured in the meeting of the Co-ordination Committee but no final decision was taken. The Congress has already finalised two names of its quota for appointments but the NC was yet to come up with the names.
The Congress insisted that the appointments to the PSC should be expedited as there was negligible representation in the Commission to the Jammu region.
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