Srinagar: Apni Party senior vice president Ghulam Hassan Mir on Wednesday took a strong exception to the procedure adopted for the establishment of elected District Development Councils (DDCs) in Jammu and Kashmir.
In a statement issued here, Mir observed that the decision taken by the government of India to go for territorial delimitation at the district levels in J&K is bereft of any rationality and consensus evolved among the people.
“Little success has been achieved by the government as far as the first tier of the Panchayat Raj Act is concerned as more than 60% of panch and sarpanch berths are still vacant in Kashmir since 2018. Amid such a situation going for constitutional reforms to fulfill the obligations of the third tier of Panchayat Raj system should not be a half-hearted exercise,” he added.
He said though the grassroots level democracy is in all respects beneficial for the people but the government in J&K did not even bother to consult different political parties in order to evolve a consensus on this extremely important democratic exercise.
“This arbitrary move which has excluded the important parameters mandatory for any delimitation process like population and the area reflects non-application of mind on part of the bureaucracy that seems to be in an obvious haste in setting up of the DDCs,” he remarked.
Mir said that the same yardstick cannot be applied to all the districts in J&K as the ratio based on population and area to be represented in the proposed DDCs drastically vary from one place to another. “If 14 constituencies are to be carved out in each district, how can government justify and equate Anantnag having seven assembly segments with the districts like Shopian (2 assembly segments), Kulgam (2 segments), and Bandipora (3 segments)?” he asked.
He urged Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, to intervene in the matter and revisit the whole exercise before the cosmetic formalities are completed for the conduct of delimitation exercise for the proposed DDCs. “Holding elections and strengthening the democracy at the grassroots level is a welcome move but the Lt. Governor must allay certain apprehensions among the people and bring improvements in the whole process,” he pleaded.
