Panchayat body protests NC, PDP’s decision to boycott poll

Tribune News Service

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Jammu, September 11

The All J&K Panchayat Conference (AJKPC) on Tuesday slammed the National Conference (NC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for their decision to boycott the upcoming panchayat election.

It also alleged that both parties were resorting to their old tactics of “blackmailing” the Centre and state administration for their vested interests.

“There is nothing new in the boycott call made by the NC and PDP. They are just resorting to their decades-old tactics of blackmailing the Central government and state administration, presently headed by the Governor, to derail the election process because they never wanted to empower the people for their personal interests,” said Anil Sharma, AJKPC state president, while addressing former sarpanches and panches during a protest here.

The protesters burned the effigies of NC president Farooq Abdullah and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti for allegedly politicising panchayati raj institutions to achieve their political goals.

The AJKPC president said the parties must understand that the panchayats were community institutions having nothing to do with political groups.

Mocking the NC and PDP leaders, he said, “they should first ask their MPs and MLAs to resign from Parliament and the Assembly to show their sincerity, if any, over Article 35A.”

Sharma also appealed to Governor Satya Pal Malik to conduct panchayat election as per the schedule.