Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Oct 12: Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed today said the Government is holding election of Panchayats and other local bodies to guarantee devolution of powers to the principal stakeholders at the grassroots level and vowed to empower these institutions.
“Only a few people get elected to the Legislative Assembly while local-self Government institutions provide opportunity to a large number to represent people in a democracy,” Mufti said. “It is travesty of justice that elections to these vital organs of democracy were delayed on one pretext or the other”, he said. He said the previous government issued the notification for these polls but later rolled back.
The Chief Minister made these remarks while participating in a discussion in the Legislative Council today on a clubbed question regarding Panchayati Raj Institutions that was raised by Congress MLC Ghulam Nabi Monga.
Promising people to make them equal partners in the State’s development mission, the Chief Minister said he is committed to transfer power from the high offices to the people on the ground. “The electoral rolls are being revised and I assure you that elections will be held very shortly,” he said, while describing powerful local bodies as a precursor to State’s real development.
Asserting his Government’s resolve to transfer powers to the District Development Boards, the Chief Minister quoted Mahatma Gandhi who had described villages and towns as the real pillars of strength of a Government. He said the State needs to take a leaf out of the functioning of Municipal Corporations in other big metros like Mumbai, which are functioning as vibrant self-sustaining institutions.
He said the Government would not postpone any elections and preparations for the polls were going on.
“I want to assure the House that we will not postpone any elections. They will be held when they are due. We will also conduct civic polls soon. The preparation like revision of electoral rolls is going on.
Sayeed said Panchayati Raj Institutions would be empowered to take the governance to the door steps of the people.
“Panchayats will be empowered. The work at district level, block level and panchayat level is not what I have to see. The Chief Education Officer in a district cannot check all the schools. Panchayats will be empowered for that,” he said.
The Chief Minister said there was no reason to postpone the polls.
“I do not know why they (previous Government) did not conduct civic bodies polls. There is a danger of opposition in this, but I do not have that danger…The (previous) NC (National Conference)-Congress Government had issued a notification for conducting Block Development Elections but withdrew it later.
“I was talking to Chief Secretary and I told him that we will conduct these elections as scheduled in April. If we have to take the path of development, then we will have to involve these institutions and the people,” Sayeed said.
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