* UT Govt recovering waived off Irri Tax
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 2: Hitting out at the UT administration for the delay in the ULB and Panchayat elections besides raising the issue of the recovery of arrears of waived off/abolished irrigation tax (Abhiyaan) from the farmers, JKPCC has said that BJP can’t face people and deferring all polls except Lok Sabha in J&K for the fear of defeat.
Addressing a joint press conference JKPCC working president, Raman Bhalla and senior vice president JKPCC Ravinder Sharma said that it was Congress Party which raised the issue of reservation to OBCs in the ULB and Panchayats as per 73rd and 74th Amendment, in a letter-cum-objections to the J&K Chief Electoral Officer on Sept 13, 2023, demanding reservations to OBCs besides holding of ULB elections under State Election Commission (SEC) as per constitution. It was the result of the Congress party’s letter that the Govt woke up to consider reservation to the OBCs and the setting up of SEC for ULBs. But the delay in the matter is deliberate out of fear of defeat by the ruling party.
They said that as per law and constitution, the elections to these bodies were required to be conducted one month prior to the expiry of their 5-year term. While all Municipal bodies including Jammu and Srinagar Municipal Corporations will complete their term by Nov. 14, the elections should have been conducted and completed by Oct 15 but it has been delayed and deferred.
The senior Congress leaders said the ruling BJP is afraid of facing all elections be it ULB/Panchayats and especially Assembly elections, for fear of losing, as LAHDC Kargil elections were a trailor for BJP, the real picture will unfold after Assembly elections and the BJP shall be wiped out in Jammu region too.
The non holding of Assembly elections and the deferment of the ULB/Panchayat elections is a silent murder of democracy and the people are suffering a lot due to the autocratic style of the bureaucratic regime who are passing arbitrary orders every other day at their whims and fancies.
Citing a case of bureaucratic arbitrariness and anti- farmer decisions of BJP Govt controlled UT administration, JKPCC leaders questioned the recovery of the arrears of waived off/abolished Irrigation tax from the farmers, whereas it was PDP-BJP Govt which itself had abolished this tax (Abhiyaan) in the budget in 2015-2016. What right the Govt has to recover the waived off/ abolished tax and even charge future tax when an elected Govt had abolished the same.
PCC general secretaries Narinder Gupta, Narinder Sharma besides Media Coordinator Neeraj Gupta were also present.
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