Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Aug 5: With no signs of holding the elections to Municipal Corporations (MCs) and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) in sight in near future, J&K has been deprived of huge amount of Central funds to be granted under various Centrally Sponsored Schemes including Jawahar Lal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).
According to sources, all funds from the Centre under various schemes including JNNURM have been blocked due to failure of State Government in holding the elections to Municipal Corporations and Urban Local Bodies for over last four years.
Sources said unlike other parts of country, J&K has failed to restore the democratic character of Municipal Corporations and Urban Local Bodies in the State by constantly delaying the implementation of 74th amendment in the State and holding the elections after expiry of their term.
Sources said that the elections to Municipal Corporations and Urban Local Bodies which were dissolved on March 5, 2010 after expiry of five year term have become over due but the State Government has failed to take any initiative of conducting these elections in time and repeated the past practice with the result it failed to get the Central funds for development for urban areas under various Centrally Sponsored Schemes.
Sources said with the implementation of Constitutional 74th amendment in the State the ULBs and Municipal Corporations will get ample powers and all line departments including PHE, Power, UEED, Health, Public Works will be under its control. Moreover, implementation of 74th amendment will make them self reliant and they will not be dependent on Government support as under the 74th amendment there is a provision of imposing property and other taxes by Municipal Corporations.
Sources said in vibrant Municipal Corporations of the country, all the line departments are functioning under one umbrella and there is lot of transparency in their functioning also. In comparison to that the J&K Government for obvious reasons has failed to restore the democratic character of the ULBs and Municipal Corporations by delaying elections every time, sources added.
Sources said previously when the Corporation elections were held in 2005 and a process was started to make the civic bodies self reliant, the authorities of JMC had calculated that civic body will generate Rs 100 crore per year with the imposition of property tax only. However, this plan fell through due to lack of political will, sources added.
Sources said one of the reasons for delaying the implementation of 74th Constitutional amendment in the State is that Government is bound to hold the elections after the expiry of every five years in which it is not interested and the past practice is a testimony to the fact.
Admitting this, former three time Mayor JMC, Kavinder Gupta said that a solid waste management project with public private partnership was framed for the JMC. Under this project entire profit was to be given to JMC but this project could not take off for reasons best known to the Government, he added.
He said likewise under Jammu Urban Renewal Mission, JMC had framed many projects for which funds had to be given by the Centre and they too were not taken up in hand as elections were delayed by many years now.
The sources said there is no headway in this regard and elections to the basic institutions of the democracy which were to be held in March 2010 are likely to be delayed further as the process on the Government level has been totally delayed.
It may be recalled that elections to the Municipal Corporations were held in 2005 by then Congress –PDP coalition Government led by Mufti Mohammed Sayeed and their term ended in March 2010. The next Government was supposed to hold fresh elections to these basic institutions of democracy within six months which was not done for the reasons best known to it, sources added.
Constituted in 1954-55, the Municipal Corporations in the State were first named as Municipal Council and later on in 1980 they were christened as Municipal Committees, said Sat Pal Grover a three time Corporator and a staunch political activist of Jammu.
Mr Grover who was for the first time elected to Corporation in 1955, later became its member in 1972, 1980 and 2005 also said that since 1972 only four times elections were held to local bodies in the State and this basic democratic institute was never allowed to flourish by the successive State Governments.
However, sources said, the elections to Municipal Corporations were held in 2005 after a gap of about 23 long years and it was expected that the old practice will not be repeated now and the elections to these basic institutes of democracy will be held in time in future as well.
Now over four years have elapsed and the Government has failed to hold these elections, sources said. Terming it a deliberate move not to allow the powers to percolate downwards so that the basic institutions of democracy are strengthened in the State, sources said that the Government even failed to empower the civic bodies by implementing the Constitutional 73rd and 74th amendments.
Sources said the elections to the Municipal Corporations and Local Bodies were obviously delayed on political reasons by the ruling alliance and this has dampened the basic spirit of constituting these institutions of democracy.
Sources said instead of empowering them as the institutions of self Government by giving them powers over schools, transport, health sector etc, the Government has not allowed these institutions to flourish in the State fully. With the prevailing role and attitude of the Government towards these democratic institutions their fate is hanging in balance, sources added.
Highly placed official sources said that Housing and Urban Development Department had initiated exercise last year to hold elections to civic bodies and Municipal Corporations. In this connection general electoral rolls were also furnished by the Department to Government in September 2013 but the final decision regarding holding of elections to the Municipal Corporations and Urban Local Bodies will be taken by the State Cabinet, sources said, adding the final nod from Government in this regard is awaited.
Sources said what to speak of holding the elections to Urban Local Bodies the Government unlike other States of the country has even failed to implement the Constitutional 74th amendment which empowers these bodies so that they can fully become the institutes of self governance thereby making a mockery of democratic process in the State.
Sources said with the Assembly elections due by ending this year, there is every likelihood that the elections to Urban Local Bodies including Municipal Corporations will not be held during this year and the decision regarding the same will be taken by the next Government.
Sources said the delaying tactics in holding the timely elections to Urban Local Bodies and Municipal Corporations has generated public resentment in the State with people saying that the successive Governments were never interested in flourishing these institutions. Had it been so, then elections to these institutions would not have been held only four times after their constitution in 1954 rather it should have been held for 12 times since then, sources added.
Follow our WhatsApp channel