The story of elections to Municipal Corporations and Urban Local Bodies in the State is indeed sad and discouraging. The Government is impervious to the very institutions that are regarded among the pillars of democracy in any democratic country.
The existing bodies completed their term on March 5, 2010, and the Government was enjoined by constitutional provisions to hold elections within six months. The main purpose of these specific elections to civic bodies is to provide opportunity for self rule and self sufficiency as well in due course of time if all goes well. It is now the fourth year that elections to civic bodies are pending and, of course, there must be some reason why the Government has been deferring it indefinitely. The point is that if elections are held and these bodies come into existence, according to rules, functionality of many departments of direct public interest will come under the control of these bodies. This means that the government will have to share power with these bodies at least in such sectors as are defined in the rules. But this is gall to the Government which is not prepared to share power with any second entity.
The State Government is also committed to implement 73rd and 74th amendment to the Constitution of India as passed by Parliament, but not much has happened in this direction. Implementation of these two amendments would mean that the Municipal Corporations and (Urban Local Bodies) ULBs will be empowered to a large extent not only with administrative but also with financial powers. It will be a major step on the path to self rule and self reliance. For example in that case the MCs and ULBs would be authorized to impose housing tax which is obdurately opposed by the ruling party. According to an estimate made by an expert on Municipal Corporation functioning it is presumed that housing tax would yield at least 100 crore rupees annually which the Corporation could utilize in improving sanitation, health and other services. But there is a strong lobby in the State that is against imposition of housing tax, a practice observed almost in all other states of the country.
Thus we find that the MCs and ULBs have been held hostage to local and regional politics. Power sharing is not acceptable to those who are at the helm of affairs and the question of strengthening democratic institutions of the State have been relegated to the back burner. It has to be noted that there are several schemes sponsored by the Central Government from which our state can derive benefit. In particular, mention has to be made of Jawahar Lal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). Under this scheme and of course from other schemes as well, the State would have received its share of fund provided elections to the Municipal Corporations and Urban Local Bodies were held on time and the system made functional. Since elections to these bodies have not been held in our state after March 2010, the Centre has stopped release of earmarked funds to the Government of Jammu and Kashmir. Thus on the one hand the Government has voluntarily lost huge funds and on the other hand development of the state through the instrument of Corporations and Local Bodies remains suspended. The ultimate sufferers are the people of the State just because the ruling authorities are not prepared to share power with other entities. This is a reflection on the intentions of the Government because it has no strong justification for deferring the elections to civic bodies. Now that elections to the Legislative Assembly will be held in October-November, there are no chances of elections for civic bodies to be held this year.
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