Preparations for Panchayat elections
Cabinet to take call on OBC Comm report shortly
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, May 30: The State Election Commission (SEC) will be holding high-level meeting for two consecutive days on June 3 and 4 with the District Election Officers (DEOs) and others to review preparations for Panchayat and District Development Council (DDC) elections in Jammu and Kashmir.
Shantmanu, the State Election Commissioner will be chairing the meeting.
The meeting of the SEC with Jammu division officials is scheduled for June 3 and the Kashmir division officials on June 4. All DEOs and other concerned officials will attend the meeting, officials told the Excelsior.
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The meeting of Jammu division will be held in offline mode while officials from the Kashmir division will join online the next day.
The SEC will review preparations for conduct of Panchayat and DDC elections in the UT.
Officials, however, asserted that elections to all three-tiers can’t be held simultaneously as there is a provision for indirect elections to the Block Development Council (BDCs). The Sarpanchs and Panchs elect the BDCs and, therefore, the BDC polls can be held only once the Panchayats are in place.
As per the Panchayati Raj Act, elections to the BDCs are to be held within three months of the constitution of Panchayats.
As far as implementation of the OBC Commission report is concerned without which elections can’t be held to the Local Bodies, the officials said the report is likely to be placed before the Cabinet and, if approved, it will go to the Lieutenant Governor for approval.
The OBC Commission was set up by the LG administration before formation of Omar Abdullah Government in the UT. The Commission headed by Justice (Retd) Janak Raj Kotwal submitted its report to the Government in February 2025 on percentage of reservation to be given to the OBCs in Panchayats, Municipalities, BDCs and DDCs.
Reservations to the OBCs were given through a legislation passed in the Parliament by Narendra Modi Government. Unless the percentage is determined, elections to three tiers of the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) can’t be held.
Presently, SC/STs and women have reservation in the Local Bodies.
The Panchayats ceased to exist in Jammu and Kashmir on January 9, 2024 and the UT is without the elected Panchayats for past over two years now.
Similar is the case with the Municipalities which completed their term in October-November 2023. Term of the Block Development Councils (BDCs) was co-terminus with the Panchayats and their tenure also ended on January 9, 2024.
Tenure of the District Development Councils (DDCs) ended on February 24, 2026.
Now, the Jammu and Kashmir is without the elected Local Bodies with all three tiers of the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) non-existent.
This was for the first time that the Jammu and Kashmir had all three elected Institutions of the PRIs.
The SEC recently concluded voter revision exercise for Panchayats in Jammu and Kashmir in which number of electorates went up to 72.24 lakh.
A total of 3,39,384 new voters were added to the rolls while 1,13,344 names were deleted due to death, shifting, duplication, and other admissible reasons. In addition, corrections were carried out in the particulars of 17,664 voters, and 31,590 voters were transposed. The final roll now stands at 72,24,131 electors, which includes 36,62,502 male, 35,61,488 female, and 141 Third gender voters.
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