Empty vessels make much noise. That is an admitted truth about some of the schemes and programmes of the State Government. Sometimes we have many doubts lurking in our mind about the fecundity of democracy as the acceptable form of Government. The truth is that there is nothing wrong in the principles of democracy. What really matters is the human stuff that is detailed to implement this form of Government.
Examined along positive parameters, we have many reservations in saying that we are on the right track. This means that we have to focus on our entire approach to governance in order to make it people-oriented. Nobody has forgotten the great cacophony raised by the previous Government in the State when it decided to hold elections to Gram Panchayats after a break of more than twenty years. That Government kept on boasting of having strengthened and solidified democratic process in the State by making people empowered in the grandiose dream of developing the remote villages in the State. The people, gullible as they are because of their unmitigated needs, reposed trust in what the Government agency propagated about the Panchayat Raj as a mechanism of passing on real power and the programme of development into the hands of Gram Sabha and the elected Panchs and Sarpanchs. The Union Ministry of Rural Development envisaged great potential in the Panchayat Raj movement in the country. Consequently, it did homework to draw the plans of development through Gram Sabhas and its operational wing, the Gram Panchayat. Theoretically speaking, Panchayat Raj has been adjudged as the best form of making villages part of the National Development Policy for rural India. Gandhi had rightly said that true India is in villages. But many of our villages remained disempowered in the sense that the people themselves were not provided the opportunity of identifying their problems and acceding to the sources that have the competence and potential to mitigate their problems. This was the main catalyzing argument behind the creation of Gram Sabhas and Gram Panchayats.
Pursuing this objective, the Union Ministry of Rural Development sanctioned a hefty amount of 185 crore rupees for our State for the purpose of asking the Gram Panchayats to identify with the collaboration and guidance of Gram Sabhas the projects that needed to be taken up on priority basis for improvement of life conditions in the villages. It was expected that the Panchayat halqas in collaboration with Block Development Officers and the responsible functionaries of Rural Development Department would make the blue prints of the developmental projects, submit these to proper quarters and get them passed. This would have opened the path for the process of rural development centered on Panchayat halqas. But unfortunately owing to various technical bottlenecks and the debilitating lethargy and incompetence at various levels, Panchayats failed to submit the Gram Panchayat Development Plans (GPDPs) till date. The result was that the amount of 185 crore rupees earmarked for these plans remained unutilized till date. This is despite the fact that funds had been already released. In order to ensure early availing of funds under the 14th Finance Commission Award, the Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj helped Jammu and Kashmir and other States in making State-specific guidelines for development and implementation of Gram Panchayat Development Plans. What really led to the failure of the scheme is that before all the 4198 Gram Panchayats in State— 1964 in Jammu and 2234 in Kashmir— come up with their respective GPDP, the Sarpanchs and Panchs ceased to exist on completion of five years terms on July 14, 2016 and accordingly the Government issued a notification for dissolution of Panchayats and conferred the powers of Panchayati Raj Institutions on the Block Development Officers (BDOs) and Panchayat Secretaries. As fresh elections of Sarpanchs and Panchs continued to remain deferred, there is complete uncertainty about the utilization of the hefty amount sanctioned by the Centre.
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