Panchayat polls may miss Jan deadline

Dinesh Manhotra

Tribune News Service

Jammu, November 21

Even as the Union Home Ministry has directed the J&K Government to hold the panchayat elections by January next, these are likely to be delayed by a couple of months due to “unavoidable circumstances.”

The panchayat elections, which were due in 2016, have already been delayed by over a year due to the unprecedented violence in the Kashmir valley after the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani in July last year.

Sources said a discussion on the dates of the panchayat elections was held during the Coalition Coordination Committee meeting today but representatives of both the parties were convinced that it was difficult to conduct polls in January next year.

“Although the parties agreed that the panchayat elections were of paramount importance to strengthen democratic institutions at grassroots, members of the PDP and BJP were convinced that an adequate groundwork was required to be done before announcing the poll schedule,” a source said, adding that the panel members agreed that the government should be asked to take its time before making an announcement in this regard.

The sources said a PDP member sought to draw attention towards the forthcoming Budget session of the Assembly in the first week of January next year. “It is not possible to conduct the panchayat elections during the Budget session,” the sources said, adding that it was decided that the panel would ask the government to take all agencies into confidence before going ahead with the elections.

“The job of the coordination committee is only to give its suggestions to the government, the final decision would be taken by those who are at the helm of the affairs,” the sources said.

The Congress has already started a campaign against conducting the panchayat elections in J&K without extending the 73rd amendment of the Constitution in its real spirit. The Congress has made it clear that the indirect elections of sarpanches was nothing but a big joke with democracy and it will further bulldoze the already-weakened Panchayati Raj Institutions in J&K.

‘More groundwork needed’

• A discussion on the dates of the panchayat elections was held during the Coalition Coordination Committee meeting on Tuesday but representatives of both the parties were convinced that it was difficult to conduct polls in January next year.
• PDP and BJP members were convinced that an adequate groundwork was required to be done before announcing the poll schedule
• A PDP member said as the Budget session was going to be held in the first week of January next year, the panchayat elections could not be held at that time