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J&K panchayats still toothless tigers!
An empty-handed army of sarpanches and panches are on the warpath in Jammu & Kashmir.
Elected last year during a six-phase exercise, they remain ‘soft’ targets and ‘powerless’ at the grassroots level as the State Government have failed to keep the tall promises made for transfer of powers of 14 key departments to panchayats.
The Government has also failed to hold elections of block development councils to kickstart participation in the planning process, as promised earlier. “For the past year, the Omar Abdullah led-coalition is playing a cruel joke on us. Now we want the Congress to take a firm stand and demonstrate its will towards empowering panchayati raj institutions,” Paramjit Singh, a sarpanch hailing from Nowshera in Rajouri, told The Pioneer on the sidelines of a day-long protest near Jammu Press Club.
A group of newly-elected sarpanches from Jammu announced, “If the Government failed to hold elections of block development councils and remain noncommittal on empowering us, we will hold demonstrations at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi to expose dirty politics.” They also threatened to boycott MLAs, MPs, Ministers and all State-sponsored functions to register protest.
A women sarpanches said, “If the Congress is seriously aiming at fulfilling the dream of Rajiv Gandhi, then it must ensure implementation of the 73rd Amendment or simply pull the plug from the coalition Government.”
Kulbhushan Khajuria, a sarpanch from Satwari area of Jammu, said, “Though the Congress has passed a resolution during its convention in Srinagar seeking early implementation of the 73rd Amendment, it is yet to put pressure on the Omar Government to practically empower us and engage us in grassroots planning.”
MBA Gurmeet Singh, from RSpura area, said, “We remain handicapped even after participating in the panchayat polls. The Government and MLAs lack the will to empower sarpanches and panches.”
Earlier, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had criticised the Omar Government for failing to empower panchayati raj institutions more than a year after holding the polls.
Azad minced no words while stating, “The benefits of panchayat elections have not trickled to the grassroots level.”
He said holding panchayat elections without block development councils was equivalent to holding Assembly elections without electing a CM and other Ministers.
Meanwhile, Abdullah maintained that constitution of block and district panchayat bodies is being worked out and in the next six months, there would be significant movement in transfer of powers.
An empty-handed army of sarpanches and panches are on the warpath in Jammu & Kashmir.
Elected last year during a six-phase exercise, they remain ‘soft’ targets and ‘powerless’ at the grassroots level as the State Government have failed to keep the tall promises made for transfer of powers of 14 key departments to panchayats.
The Government has also failed to hold elections of block development councils to kickstart participation in the planning process, as promised earlier. “For the past year, the Omar Abdullah led-coalition is playing a cruel joke on us. Now we want the Congress to take a firm stand and demonstrate its will towards empowering panchayati raj institutions,” Paramjit Singh, a sarpanch hailing from Nowshera in Rajouri, told The Pioneer on the sidelines of a day-long protest near Jammu Press Club.
A group of newly-elected sarpanches from Jammu announced, “If the Government failed to hold elections of block development councils and remain noncommittal on empowering us, we will hold demonstrations at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi to expose dirty politics.” They also threatened to boycott MLAs, MPs, Ministers and all State-sponsored functions to register protest.
A women sarpanches said, “If the Congress is seriously aiming at fulfilling the dream of Rajiv Gandhi, then it must ensure implementation of the 73rd Amendment or simply pull the plug from the coalition Government.”
Kulbhushan Khajuria, a sarpanch from Satwari area of Jammu, said, “Though the Congress has passed a resolution during its convention in Srinagar seeking early implementation of the 73rd Amendment, it is yet to put pressure on the Omar Government to practically empower us and engage us in grassroots planning.”
MBA Gurmeet Singh, from RSpura area, said, “We remain handicapped even after participating in the panchayat polls. The Government and MLAs lack the will to empower sarpanches and panches.”
Earlier, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had criticised the Omar Government for failing to empower panchayati raj institutions more than a year after holding the polls.
Azad minced no words while stating, “The benefits of panchayat elections have not trickled to the grassroots level.”
He said holding panchayat elections without block development councils was equivalent to holding Assembly elections without electing a CM and other Ministers.
Meanwhile, Abdullah maintained that constitution of block and district panchayat bodies is being worked out and in the next six months, there would be significant movement in transfer of powers.
