Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 25: Governor N N Vohra today said that the establishment of Panchayati Raj and the corresponding devolutions in the arena of municipal administration would lead to the establishment of a decentralized democratic framework at the grass root level in the entire State.
He observed that this shall provide an exciting opportunity for all our people living in the villages and towns to become closely and productively involved in planning and implementing various developmental schemes and programmes which promote their interests.
Greeting the people on the 65th Republic Day, in a message, the Governor observed that effective establishment of rural and urban self-governing bodies in each of the three regions of the State would be a milestone in the governance of J&K.
“I have strongly believed and consistently stressed that the empowerment of the people at the grass root level and enabling Panchayats to effectively participate in the planning and implementation of development programmes would result in promoting the welfare of the entire rural population. I have been stressing that the conduct of elections to the Urban Local Bodies, which had been planned to be done a considerable time ago, and implementation of various pending institutional and taxation reforms, would result in invigorating the entire municipal administrative framework and go a long way in establishing a democratic self-governing framework in all the towns and cities”, said the Governor and hoped that these very long awaited elections and other institutional reforms shall be carried out in the coming months.
Observing that the elections to the Parliament and the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly are scheduled to be held in the coming months, the Governor said that the electoral contests held in 2008 and 2009 and the Panchayat polls in 2011 had witnessed a very high turnout of the voters and hoped that the forthcoming polls shall see the maximum number of voters exercising their franchise.
While remembering the great national leaders in the freedom struggle, the Governor also paid tribute to the State and the Central Police Forces and the Army for their unflinching devotion to duty and paid homage to the brave officers and men who laid down their lives to protect and preserve the country’s territorial integrity.
“Our country has travelled a fairly long distance since Independence and the journey, on many occasions, has been quite difficult. Thanks to the devoted endeavours of our enlightened leaders in the initial years, significant strides were taken towards building the unity and integrity of the nation and imbibing our polity with strong secular foundations,” he said.
“While considerable progress has been achieved on varied fronts it is a matter for serious concern that, over the past years, divisive forces and fissiparous tendencies have started raising their heads in various parts of the country,” Mr Vohra said and lamented that our societies are showing increasing intolerance and getting divided on the basis of religion and narrow linguistic, caste and other loyalties. As a consequence, we are witnessing religious and caste tensions and communal violence, which are generating an environment of turbulence, he said. Side by side, there has been a progressive decline in our ethical codes and values in virtually every sphere and this has led to governance being marred by growing complaints of corruption, he added.
The Governor said “notwithstanding the alarming bells from varied quarters it is our great good fortune that the democratic system is now deeply rooted and firmly established all across the country. Thanks to the revolution in information technology, our billion and a quarter people are politically conscious and aware of their democratic rights. This awakening has led to our citizens rightly demanding, more and more aggressively, the satisfaction of their various needs ? shelter, food, water, electricity, roads, schools, hospitals and employment”.
The Governor observed that it is not unlikely that the winds of change blowing across the country would also influence the affairs of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and we may have to face varied challenges. Terrorism and militancy, which commenced in 1990, have resulted in large human and economic losses and caused prolonged miseries for the common man. The long period of unrest has also adversely affected the functioning of the administrative machinery and public institutions, and the erstwhile work culture and efficiencies have been seriously eroded. It is necessary to fill up this gap and regain the required momentum. As we are witnessing all around, the people at large are getting increasingly impatient and restive and are no longer willing to bear with defaults and deficiencies in the functioning of public delivery systems, much less accept the continuance of corrupt practices.
The Governor observed that despite certain constraints, the State was able to achieve a growth rate of 6.14 percent during 2012-13, which is higher than the national average. However, for Jammu and Kashmir to forge ahead on a sustained basis we need to do much better and systematically tackle several serious challenges, particularly the problems of unemployment and the acute shortage of power in Jammu and Kashmir, he added.
The Governor said that if satisfactory growth and development is to be achieved, it is of crucial importance that all the three regions of the State and the various difficult areas in each region are well connected with a reliable network of roads, bridges and tunnels.
The Governor conveyed warm greetings and good wishes to the people of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh and prayed that the New Year, which has already dawned, shall bring sustained peace, normalcy and prosperity in all parts of the State.
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