Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 29: Having suffered financial losses running into hundreds of crores, the PDP-BJP Government is again mulling the option of undertaking exercise of holding elections to the Panchayats before onset of winter subject to further improvement in law and order situation in the Kashmir valley.
Asserting that holding of Panchayat elections has become a “compulsion” for the State Government and was not confined to “political mileage” in view of Central funds running into hundreds of crores getting blocked, official sources told the Excelsior that in view of improvement in law and order with street protests going down considerably this summer, the Government was expected to take a call shortly on whether the situation would be conducive for holding the Panchayat elections before onset of winter or not.
Sources said the Government has decided to hold high-level review of law and order situation in the Kashmir valley in first half of next month before taking a final call on holding the Panchayat elections in the State, which were due for the past more than a year now as previous Panchayats had completed their term in July 2016.
On their part, the Election Department has been going ahead with updating Electoral Rolls for the Panchayats.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), J&K, Shaleen Kabra told the Excelsior that Electoral Rolls for Jammu and Ladakh divisions were almost complete while claims and objections were being disposed off. However, in some districts of Kashmir, where the Electoral Rolls hadn’t been updated, the task is on.
However, Kabra said, only the Government has to take a final call on when to hold the Panchayat elections.
According to sources, the Government was weighing all pros & cons of holding Panchayat elections in the State especially the Kashmir valley, where by-election to Srinagar Lok Sabha seat in April this year had led to widespread trouble in which eight civilians were killed and scores of others were injured forcing the Election Commission of India to defer by-poll to Anantnag Lok Sabha seat.
“We are losing Central funding running into hundreds of crores due to delay in holding of elections to Panchayats. This has been affecting development of rural areas. In view of this, holding Panchayat polls has become a necessity,” the Government sources said but added: “at the same time, we can’t take risk of law and order situation, which is our priority at all costs. We will go for Panchayat polls only if law and order situation permits”.
The Government of India extends certain Central grants directly to the elected Panchayats for carrying out developmental works in their segments. These grants are not released if there are no elected Panchayats, they said and pointed that already more than a year has passed without elected Panchayats and further delay in the elections would add to the financial losses.
In February-March this year, the Government had set the process in motion for holding Panchayat elections in April-May. The State Election Commission (SEC) had completed 80 per cent of work for the elections including updation of electoral rolls, delimitation of Panchayat segments, doing away with Sarpanch constituencies and completing other requisite formalities.
However, sudden announcement of by-elections to Srinagar and Anantnag Lok Sabha seats by the Election Commission of India in April-May had forced the Government as well as the State Election Commission to call off the process for Panchayat elections. Following violence in Srinagar Lok Sabha seat by-poll, the Election Commission had deferred Anantnag poll.
Prior to delimitation process initiated by the State Election Commission, there were 4098 Panchayats in the State including 2145 in the Kashmir division (including Ladakh region) and 1953 in Jammu province. Apart from that, there were 15,767 Panch segments in Kashmir division including Ladakh and 13,635 in Jammu region.
The State Government through an act of legislation had done away with Sarpanch constituencies by deciding to hold in-direct election to them, leaving all constituencies as Panch segments.
The Panch segments were converted into odd-number by the SEC in every Panchayat to facilitate election of Sarpanch from amongst the Panchs.
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