Mehbooba goes back on word to Centre, says no to panchayat polls

Tribune News Service

Jammu, December 3 

The PDP-BJP government has said a firm no to holding  of the long overdue panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who had committed to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh  on October 26 to set the poll process in motion from December 1, has conveyed that the elections cannot be conducted because of lack of a conducive atmosphere.

The last elections were held under the watch of the Omar Abdullah government in April-May  2011 with an all-time high voter turnout of 80 per cent.  The elections were due in early 2016 but the Mehbooba government took refuge in the revision of rolls and the volatile situation after the killing of militancy poster boy Burhan Wani to defer the polls.

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The MHA and stakeholders in the state were urging the PDP-BJP government to hold the elections to revive grassroots democracy, being seen as a necessary stepping stone for governance.

Govenor NN Vohra had  promulgated an ordinance  on November 4  to expedite the poll process as the CM had given her word to the Home Minister that she would  initiate the  election notification from December 1.