Kargil contest exposes duplicity of parties on panchayat elections

Arun Joshi

tribune news service

Drass (Kargil), August 20

Political groups are sweating hard here in this second coldest place in the world to gain majority in the 30-member Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council, Kargil, that goes to the polls on August 27, but these very groups are digging heels when it comes to participating in the panchayat elections in the state.

All major political parties — National Conference, Peoples’ Democratic Party, BJP and Congress — have fielded their candidates for the Kargil council, a larger version of panchayats.

The Kargil council was set up in 2003 on the pattern of the Leh hill development council that came into being in 1995. These councils have transformed the cold desert of Ladakh.

Drass today boasts of good roads, upgraded schools and round-the-clock electricity supply.

“It (the council) has made a huge difference to our lives. We have easy access to councillors who listen to our grievances and redress the same. That saves us lot of time and travel as earlier the power centres were in Jammu and Srinagar only,” says Manzoor Illahi, a government employee.

“Our education and developmental standards have improved, and so has the access to the health services,” he adds while pointing out to the new degree college and sub-district hospital.

Saleem, another youth who is an activist of the National Conference, foresees a rise in tourism as the council has improved infrastructure in the area. New facilities are coming up. “Our place is known to the world — Drass was the epicentre of the Kargil war. We need facilities and the council is taking care of them,” says Saleem.

The level of enterprise has improved after the council came into being.

The people here are eager to participate in the panchayat elections, as and when these polls may be announced.

Governor NN Vohra during his Independence Day speech in Srinagar announced that the panchayat polls would be held from first week of October to December, and these would be preceded by the local bodies polls scheduled to begin from first week of September and last until first week of October.

Manzoor wondered why the political groups contesting the Kargil council elections should shy away from the panchayat polls. “The people are ready, so why should the political groups have a problem,” he asks.

The political groups that have ruled the state in the last decade have kept the panchayat and local bodies polls pending since 2016 and 2011, respectively.

The National Conference-Congress coalition took credit for holding panchayat polls in 2011 that recorded a historic high turnout of 80 per cent, but it did not hold the local bodies elections on the pretext that these would interrupt the tourist season. But it proved itself wrong when it conducted the panchayat polls during spring, the peak season of tourism.

The PDP-BJP alliance made a commitment in its Agenda of Alliance in March 2015 regarding holding of panchayat polls, but it never took even the first step in the direction. It had promised that it will “ensure that powers and decentralisation of decision-making is in practice devolved to three-tier panchayats, municipalities and corporations. The third tier of governance will be empowered to discharge their statutory functions effectively and efficiently by giving them functional roles, fiscal responsibilities.” However, this commitment was not fulfilled by the alliance.