Panchayat elections were held last in April-May 2011 after a lapse of 37 years. The term of the elected Sarpanchs and Panchs expires in next few days. In normal process fresh elections should have been held for 33500 Panchayat members including 4098 Sarpanchs and 29,402 Panchs in good advance so that next term would begin smoothly. Normally, the Government is supposed to convey the dates of election to the Election Department in good advance which has not been done. The fact of the matter is that the process of fresh elections was actually begun some times in March this year during Governor’s rule. We have learnt that on the instructions of the Governor, the Chief Election Officer (CEO) had begun identification and rotation of reserved Wards and related exercise.
However, with the induction of the elected Government, the momentum of election preparations was arrested because the newly inducted Government had a number of priority based agenda to fulfill. Obviously, the Election Department cannot go ahead in the matter unless it has a signal from the Government to proceed. We understand that under Governor’s instruction, it was proposed to hold fresh elections to the Panchayats in May-June so that with the expiry of the existing terms of the Panchayat members, new teams would be inducted before the expiry of the final date. That did not happen.
It is reported that after the death of then Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on January 7, the administration had decided under Governor’s rule to hold Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) elections in first half of May followed by Panchayat polls in June. The new Government took over on April 4, 2016. It immediately got busy with the preparation of the budget. This consumed most of the time and energy of the Government with the result that it could not pay attention to the elections whether of the Panchayats or Urban Local Bodies (ULB).
The serious implication of not holding Panchayat elections on time will be that the Central grant for Panchayats running into crores of rupees will be withheld. According to the rules and regulations of the Union Panchayat Ministry, grants are sanctioned or released only if fresh elections are held and the bodies are in place after going through proper procedure. We fail to understand why the State Government did not take into consideration the loss of a big grant in case elections to Panchayats were delayed. Reports say that the Government is now thinking of holding these elections in October. In that case the Government has to convey the decision to the Election Department which will have to resume the exercise that had been suspended since some time.
We know that Panchayat elections were held in 2011 after a big gap of 37 years. The Government understands the importance of Panchayat elections as a big boost to democratic process in the State. We should not forget that in a situation of turmoil, Panchayats and its members, Sarpanchs and Panchs, came under great strain. Some of them were assassinated by the militants who feared that a democratic process would dry their sources of recruitment of volunteers. Yet in face of dire threat to life the Sarpanchs and Panchs in a vast number of Panchayats stood firm on their ground and did not succumb to the intimidation of militants and their gun. We have great appreciation for them. They are in fact the props and pillars of mass based democracy. In these circumstances, we are hopeful that elections to Panchayats and the Urban Local Bodies will be held as soon as possible. More than the funds that will be provided by the Centre in normal course of things, the strengthening of democratic process in the State is of utmost importance.
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