Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 9: Hailing the recent verdict of the J&K High Court for time bound Local Bodies polls in the J&K to be concluded within a period of six months, Harsh Dev Singh, Chairman JKNPP and former Minister, said that it was breather for the civic bodies which were not only being ignored in terms of development but were also deprived of the benefits of democratic decentralization as envisaged under law.
Flaying the dilly-dallying tactics of the State Government, he said that with the tentative election schedule for urban and rural local bodies having already been announced by the Governor and all preparations having been made by the Election Department, it was expected that the incumbent Government would not create obstacles or obstructions in the process.
He said that not only was the tentative schedule for the said polls announced by the Governor but the much needed amendment for use of electronic voting machines in place of ballot papers in the local bodies polls had also been effected by the Governor through his ordinance. Pointing that there were unconfirmed reports of the BJP-PDP was contemplating appeal before the High Court for postponement of such elections, Singh said that any such proposition was fraught with dangerous consequences and would be fought tooth and nail in view of elections having been repeatedly deferred for political reasons alone.
Emphasizing the urgency of early elections to local bodies, Harsh Dev said that the State has already lost several hundreds of crores rupees due to its reluctance to hold the municipal polls. He regretted that State had been deprived of thousands of crores for development of Municipal areas which has been withheld by the Central Government during the last six years due to the failure of the State Government to constitute the elected municipal bodies.
Lamenting the huge loss to the State under 13th Finance Commission, Mr. Harsh Dev Singh pointed out that the 14th Finance Commission had also proposed Rs 4161 crore for the State which included Rs 3117.36 crore for Rural Local Bodies and Rs 1044.51 crore for Urban Local Bodies with a precondition that funds would be released only if elected local bodies were constituted as a measure of democratic decentralization. He said that the 14th Finance Commission had provided a grant of Rs 125.30 crore in the first instance for 2015-16 which however could not be availed due to non holding of Municipal bodies during 2015-16.
Expressing serious concern over frequent postponements of elections, the ex-Education Minister appealed to the State Governor who is constitutional head of the State to intervene so as to check further violations of legal provisions and of High Court orders and to further ensure that the people were not deprived of their genuine democratic rights and aspirations.
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