Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 12: All Jammu and Kashmir Panchayat Conference (AJKPC) today said that lodging protest and projecting own cause like hike in honorarium and protocol etc, leaving aside core public issues by the DDC members, is unfortunate and said that AJKPC can never be part of any such agitation.
Addressing a press conference here today, president of the AJKPC Anil Sharma said that DDC is a component of three tier- system including Panchayats and BDCs. It is incomplete without Block Development Committees and the Panchayats. The main purpose of all the three components is to work for the welfare of the general public and project and resolve their issues, like water supply, electricity, roads, lanes, health care, education, sanitation etc.
He pointed out that some DDC members have launched protest demanding hike in their own honorarium, empowerment and higher protocol. It would have been much better if they had projected the public issues. They would have been supported them, if they had raised the issues of denial of MGNREGA wages to the poor labourers, condition of roads, shortage of staff in rural schools, hospitals and BDO offices, besides raising issues of power and water. Many Govt Higher Secondary Schools have no Lecturers and Principals, many Master grade posts are lying vacant.
AJKPC leader said former Governor, S P Malik had once talked about empowerment and respectable honorariums of Panchayat, BDC and DCC members. If they had raised issue, they should have taken all of them into confidence.
“It was shocking to note that rather than espousing the cause of their electorates after manoeuvering victory of its DDC candidates in recent elections, some people were attempting to browbeat the administration for promotion of their personal interests. Rather than seeking a fair deal for the people who had voted for them in the elections, they were pressurizing the Government to increase their perks and privileges,” Sharma said.
It is shameful to observe that not a single word was uttered about the plight of daily rated workers of PHE, PWD, PDD, MGNREGA and Anganwari Workers who were working on negligible honorarium for the last several years. Many DRWs had been deprived of their wages for months and years together, he added.
Ram Saroop Sharma, Jatinder Singh, Des Raj Bhagat-all AJKPC vice presidents, senior members Ghulam Rasool, Abhay Khajuria and Showkat Choudhary also accompanied.
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