Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 10: Expressing serious concern over the killings of two Panchayat members in Kashmir Valley and terror incident in Udhampur town, All Jammu and Kashmir Panchayat Conference (AJKPC) today urged the Government of India to take all tangible and stern measures to weed out terrorism from Jammu and Kashmir.
The AJKPC, however, said that such mindless killings would not deter elected Panchayat members from serving the people and strengthening the democracy at grassroots level in Jammu and Kashmir.
“We want to tell terrorist groups and their ilk in Pakistan that they will not succeed in their nefarious designs of derailing grassroots democratic institutions in Jammu and Kashmir,” said Anil Sharma, UT president of AJKPC while addressing a press conference after concluding his three-day tour of Udhampur district.
Giving details of his three-day tour of different Panchayats in Latti, Dudu-Basantgarh and Chenani blocks of Udhampur districts, the AJKPC president said he had threadbare discussions with the elected members of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) over the problems being faced by them.
“Nearly 50 percent funds under CAPEX meant for carrying out infrastructure development in Panchayats are about to lapse due to unwieldy tendering process. Panchayats could not carry out work due to delay in the tendering process. Ultimately, people are the direct loser of this red tape. We urge the Central Government that necessary amendments should be made to ensure that Gram Sabhas are empowered to carry out works up to Rs 5 lakh. Being a Himalayan and hilly Union Territory, there should be no tendering exercise for works below Rs 5 lakh at Panchayat level in J&K,” Sharma said.
He also demanded that Gram Sabhas should be empowered in such a manner that all works with an estimated cost below Rs 5 lakh are exempted from the tendering process and these works should be allotted to local youths. It will bring quality in development works besides ending the people’s distrust against the Panchayat members,” he said.
The AJKPC leader also expressed concern over the dilapidated condition of Ramnagar to Basantgarh and Basantgarh-Chenani roads and urged the UT administration for immediate repair of these roads to provide much-needed relief to the rural populace.
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