Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Sept 28: Hinting at counter-insurgents involvement in the killing of two Sarpanchs in Baramulla district, senior leader of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Muzaffar Hussain Beigh today said that militants don’t discriminate between the political parties at the time of killing.
Addressing a press conference here this afternoon, Beigh accused Chief Minister Omar Abdullah of violating the oath of office and secrecy by accepting that he could not empower the Panchayats as two Congress ministers raised objection over it. He said the Chief Minister has violated the coalition dharma since he has not reported the objection of Congress ministers over the empowerment of Panchayats to Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
“Honestly speaking I don’t know the people behind the killing of Sarpanchs at Palhallan-Pattan and Nowpora-Sangrama in Baramulla district. But since these areas are represented by PDP in the Assembly it is quite possible that Government gunmen are behind these killings. The needle of suspicion is pointed towards the Government gunmen. Militants would kill the Sarpanchs randomly and they would not discriminate on the basis of their political affiliation,” said Beigh.
Taking a dig at the statement of Chief Minister that MLAs don’t want the powers to be transferred to the Panchayats, Beigh said that the Government is shifting the blame on the opposition while covering its own inefficiency. He said the onus lies on the Government and they have to take the final call whether to empower the Panchayats or not.
Beigh said that PDP does not want to become a party to the controversy between National Conference and Congress on the issue of empowerment of Panchayats. He said the differences between the coalition partners have to be sorted out among themselves, adding that PDP does not see its role in this context.
“There is no need to bring in the 73rd amendment to the state constitution for giving more powers to the Panchayats. The Panchayats can be empowered in the real sense by the legislature by a simple majority and there is no need to bring in the amendment. The State Government has not put in place the corrective system of Panchayati Raj in the state since there are many shortcomings and loopholes in the system,” said Beigh.
He said that the chairman of District Development Planning Board should be elected and not nominated by the Government. He said the nomination process has diluted the whole process of the Panchayati Raj system.
“The law says that budgetary provision has to be kept for the Panchayats but since the constitution of Panchayats after 2011 Panchayat elections no such provision has been kept. No money was kept for Panchayats during 2011-12 and 2012-13 state budget. This also shows non-seriousness of the State Government in empowering the Panchayats and how can they point fingers towards the others in non-empowerment of the Panchayats,” said Beigh.
Beigh accused Congress of criminal silence over the bill introduced in the state legislature in 2011 seeking amendments to the Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj. He said the Congress party should have supported the bill since it was aimed at giving more powers to the Panchayats. He said that Congress has no reason to vouch for more powers to Panchayats after last year’s inapt attitude in this regard.
Beigh took a dig at the statement of State Government that powers have been transferred to 14 departments saying that the Panchs and Sarpanchs have been asked to supervise the working of the staff in departments like education and Public Health Engineering. He claimed that out of 17, 960 Panchs and Sarpanchs of Kashmir valley, 8600 belong to Peoples Democratic Party.
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