Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 9: All Jammu and Kashmir Panchayat Conference (AJKPC) today held a unique type of demonstration while standing on a single leg to protest against the failure of Government to make Panchayats self-reliant by not conferring mining rights to them till date.
Scores of elected members of Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) assembled outside the office of Block Development Officer (BDO) Akhnoor and raised slogans against the Mining and Geology Department while launching UT-wide agitation against the failure of UT administration to confer mining rights to the Panchayats as announced by the Government in July last year.
They said that common masses had been suffering badly due to highly inflated rates of mining material including sand, gravel etc as mining mafia from Punjab in collusion with local mafia has been ruling the roost in Jammu and Kashmir.
“The UT administration, particularly Department of Mining and Geology, has left Panchayats to move on crutches. It seems that some vested interests in the administration don’t want self-reliance of the Panchayats. In July last year, it was decided to grant mining blocks to the Panchayats through short permits for achieving financial empowerment of grassroots democratic institutions in rural pockets but nothing has been done in this direction so far,” said Anil Sharma, UT president of AJKPC while leading the protest.
Sharma said the Panchayat members across Jammu and Kashmir would submit memorandums to the Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha through concerned DCs, SDMs and BDOs, seeking his personal intervention for granting mining blocks to Panchayats for making them self-reliant.
“The rights of mining blocks within the jurisdiction of concerned Panchayat should be conferred to them so that Panchayats are made self-reliant. The revenue generation through this process would be utilized for overall development of concerned Panchayat. It would not only empower Panchayats financially but also bring down their dependency on government,” Sharma said.
Similarly, mining blocks within the jurisdiction of urban areas and towns should be granted to concerned municipal bodies so that they are also empowered financially, he added.
“Jammu and Kashmir has been blessed with natural resources and the Government should allow the judicious use of resources through Panchayats to take the Union Territory on the path of development,” Sharma said.
Prominent among those who spoke on the occasion were Des Raj Bhagat, Ram Saroop Sharma, Verinder Kumar, Capt. Prabh Dayal, Mahesh Chander, Kishori Lal Sharma, Ganesh Dass, Kunda Ram, Jagdish Raj Sharma, Davinder Singh, Shamsher Singh and Kali Dass.
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