JAMMU: Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Shantmanu today briefed Governor N N Vohra and members of State Administrative Council about the status of preparations for conduct of Panchayat and Urban Local Bodies elections in Jammu and Kashmir at the Raj Bhavan here.
Discussions were held with the CEO about the schedule of elections to all Urban Local Bodies in the coming months. The CEO informed that the preparations are well on course for conducting free and fair Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) elections in the State and that the electoral roll will be finalised before March 31, 2016.
The Governor noted that holding of timely elections to the Urban Local Bodies will enable the State to derive maximum benefit from the 14th Finance Commission Award which provides about Rs 5480 crore for the decentralized democratic framework: Rs 3463.73 crore and Rs 1305.64 crore for the rural and urban local bodies, respectively, and Rs. 346.73 crore and Rs. 261.13 crore as Performance Grants for rural and urban local bodies.
It was also noted that the State had lost over Rs.169 crore for the non conduct of ULB elections and an allocation of over Rs 125 crore was lost in 2015-16 for want of duly constituted municipalities. The Governor also reviewed the status of preparations with regard to conduct of Panchayat elections. It was noted that after the elections in 2011 the Panchayats were notified on July 14, 2011, with a term of five years. (AGENCIES)
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