Jammu, Feb 09: Congress today took serious objections to be mode and manner the delimitation of wards in the Panchayats has been undertaken by the Govt. thus vitiating the atmosphere for a free , fair and transparent electoral exercise to the Panchayat bodies in the State.
Addressing a press Conference at Party HQ today Chief Spokesperson the party Mr. Ravinder Sharma besides General secretaries Vikram Malhotra & Th. Manmohan Singh took serious note of the arbitrary and hush-hush manner in which entire exercise has been undertaken by the government in the delimitation of wards and Panchayats etc in the run up to the elections to the Panchayat Bodies.
Sharma said while the PDP-BJP govt. has already diluted the spirit and authority of 73rd amendment by indirect election of sarpanchs from panchs and by not constituting the independent state election commission, the exercise under taken for delimitation of wards and panchayats in an arbitrary and hush- hush manner has led to great resentment amongst people in villages, as the same is being conducted through favoritism and on political consideration
Sharma said that present coalition having failed on all fronts and has not been able to provide basic facilities ration on reasonable rates as per scale , power & water to the people, while BJP is on back foot on all its tall slogans be it abrogation of Act 370, providing voting rights and citizenship to west Pakistani refugees and even domicile certificate, setting up of separate colonies to kashmiri pundits and have reducing the duration of Amarnath Yatra etc, it now wants to manipulate elections to panchayat bodies by resorting to such tactics, which will be resisted tooth and nail by the people, as it would weaken the democracy in the state.
It is worth mentioning that by virtue of Amendment to the State Panchayat Raj, the provision of 73rd amendment were incorporated on 14th March 2014, which apart from providing reservation of SC/STs and Women at each level from Panch, Sarpanch, Chairperson of blocks and district boards, also provide that the delimitation of wards/ Panchayats shall be conducted by the election Authority . Earlier, Prior to amendment the election authority was chief electoral officer but now under amended act, the election authority is “State Election Commission”. Prior to amendment the delimitation of panchayats was the job of directors Rural development department but under the Act of 2014, the Sub(CC) to section 36(D) provided that the election commission shall determine and delimit the Halqa Panchayats
The section 36 of the Act provided for appointment of an independent state election commission for panchayats, by the Governor on the recommendation of the committee consisting of :-
1. Chief Minister
2. Senior Minister to be nominated by the Chief Minister
3. Speaker of the Assembly
4. Minister incharge Panchayats
5. Leader of Opposition
The Act also provide that if a serving , IAS officer is to be appointed as State election Commissioner, he shall be deemed to have retried on Superannuation from the date of assumption of office.
Hence this is clear that the entire exercise of Panchayat election including delimitation of Panchayats etc is to be done by an Independent election Commission , so that entire exercise is done in a free, fair and transparent manner.
- First of all this govt. did not constitute the Independent election commission , in accordance with the provision of the amended State Panchayat act, of 73rd amendment.
- Secondly this govt. brought out an anti democratic and retrograde amendment whereby instead of general election of sarpanch, the Panchs would chose a sarpanch. This is highly retrograde step which diluted the basic spirit of 73rd amendment and weakened the authority and institutions of panchayats in the State.
- Now the entire exercise of delimitation of wards/Panchayats is done contrary to the law and devoid all its fairness without any transparent criteria and manner, which reflects heavily on the real intention of the government behind it. How the entire exercise of delimitation can be conducted in thousands of wards within a week, he questioned ?
- No political party or erstwhile sarpanches/Panchs were taken into confidence or apprised of this exercise . No prior consultation or Uniform criteria was notified. This has vitiated the atmosphere of a free & fair exercise and caused genuine apprehensions in the minds of general public.
- It was the duty of election Authority to ensure that a fair and transparent procedure is adopted after taking due and proper views of all political parties and other concerned, but unfortunately that has not happened. It is the election authority which has to exercise the power delimitation of panchayats/ wards after notifying a reasonable and transparent criteria and procedure for the same. Objection have to be invited from a general public/ political parties to any proposed change/ delimitation and reservations as per the Act.
- In view of this we urge the election authority to do everything possible in ensuring the legality, transparency and fairness in the entire exercise to maintain the faith of general public.
- The Govt. if sincere and serious to hold a free, fair and transparent elections’ to these bodies, should immediately constitute the independent election commission as provided in section 36 of the panchayat Raj Act.
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The government should also immediately set up the finance commission as per (J&K) State finance Commission for panchayats and municipalities Act 2011-
Needless to retirate that the government should undo the damage done to these institutions by way of amendment and if it is really interested in empowering these institutions, restore the provision of direct election of sarpanchs.
He said that congress party has already conveyed its serious objections through a letter written to the CEO on Feb 3rd 2017 through Sh. Sham Lal Sharma Sr. Vice President but there is no response or action on this.
It is worth mentioning that the congress launched a long dream struggle to get all the provision of 73rd amendment incorporated in the state laws to fully empower the grass root institutions and now all good provision stand incorporated in the state laws, for a fully empowered three tier system with adequate reservation to the women, SCs & STs, which exists in the Act now. The congress party is eager for holding of early elections to these bodies in a free, fair transparent manner at the earliest possible.
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