Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 26: All Jammu Kashmir Panchayat Conference (AJKPC) has demanded constitution of Block Development of Councils (BDCs) and District Development Planning Boards (DDPBs) to achieve three-tier Panchayat Raj system in Jammu and Kashmir.
“The Government should immediate announce the constitution of BDCs and DDPBs to achieve three-tier Panchayat Raj system in the State which will empower the people at grassroots level. The recent Panchayat elections would hold no meaning if the three-tier system is not put in place in the State,” AJKPC State president Anil Sharma said. He further stressed that the State Government should immediately constitute separate finance and election commissions for the Panchayats.
Sharma said this was addressing Sarpanchs and Panchs during his visit to several blocks of Jammu region including Hiranagar, Nagrota, Miran Sahib, Majalta, Khoon, Katra, Chenani and Maira Mandrian, as a part of his block-level interaction programmes in Jammu province to mobilize elected Panchayat members for the strengthening of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) in the State.
The AJKPC State president said the Centre and the State Government should work in close coordination to ensure the implementation of 73rd Amendment of Indian Constitution in J&K.
During interaction with Anil Sharma, the elected Panchayat members also raised the issues of liability running in several crores under the Centre’s flagship programme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and demanded for immediate clearance of it, saying, “Non-clearance of liability has grounded all development activities in rural pockets of the state”.
They also raised concern over the recent guidelines of the rural development department regarding work-wise execution of activities on the pattern of 60:40 which needs to be amended to district-wise otherwise it would affect the development works. They also demanded amendment in the guidelines of 14th Finance Commission.
The elected Panchayat members also described the meager honorarium of Rs 2,500 to elected Sarpanchs and Rs 1,000 to Panchs as cruel joke and demanded that it should be hiked to a respectable amount of Rs 25,000 to Sarpanchs and Rs 10,000 to Panchs.
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