Panchayat body calls govt nomination of district board heads illegal

Tribune News Service

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Jammu, December 14

The All Jammu Kashmir Panchayat Conference (AJKPC) today sought immediate intervention of Governor NN Vohra, demanding removal of all nominated chairpersons of District Development Boards (DDBs).

The AJKPC — an organisation of sarpanches and panches spearheading the struggle for empowerment of panchayats — is up in arms against the government’s alleged “illegal” and “unjustified” nomination of chairpersons of the DDBs.

Questioning the logic behind the government notification, the panchayat body accused the ruling dispensation of undermining the authority of the Panchayati Raj Institutions. It alleged the government was not following proper procedure of holding elections of the chairpersons and vice-chairpersons for the boards.

“The present as well as the previous governments have always tried to undermine the authority of the PRIs as they did not follow the proper procedure of holding elections of the chairpersons and vice-chairpersons of the DDBs from panchayats only and nominated non-members of the boards as their chairpersons,” Anil Sharma, president, AJKPC, told reporters here.

Sharma said they had written to the Governor, seeking the removal of chairpersons of 20 districts, nominated by the state government in violation of the J&KPanchayati Raj Act.

According to the Planning Department, CM Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, Deputy CM Nirmal Singh and Cabinet ministers are among the nominated chairpersons to the DDBs. Mufti is the chairperson of the Srinagar DDB.

“The state government is violating the Act passed by the state legislature. Through an executive order on June 11 this year, the state government constituted the DDBs in every district of the state. The boards are entrusted with an important assignment of formulation of development programmes for the district and to formulate plan and non-plan budget as all funds provided by the government to the district are mandatory to be routed through the DDBs. Instead of allowing the elections of the chairpersons and vice-chairpersons, the government itself nominated them without any authority,” the AJKPC president said in his written plea to the Governor.