Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 10: Terming the orderly conduct of the election to the basic democracies in the State of J&K as significant achievement, the former Union Minister Prof Chaman Lal Gupta has stressed the need for special attention to ensure that these bodies function with the objective of having the Gram Swaraj, the dream of greatmen like Mahatma Gandhi.
This attention, he said, needed much as the electors had participated in large numbers in the poll process despite the threats of ultras and boycott call by the dubious characters, who would never like the success of this great mission.
Prof Gupta recalled that Panchayat Raj concept in the State was quite old. “This grass root institution concept was taken in 1935 when Maharaja Hari Singh had promulgated Panchayat Regulation Act. The preamble of the Act was very well articulated. The Panchayats were entrusted to assist in the administration of the Civil and Criminal Justice and also to manage the sanitation and other common concerns of the village,” he added and regretted that after the end of monarchy in the State, he politicians looked never serious to share the powers at the grass root level though they amended and enacted new laws in this regard. “They were not prepared even to adopt the 73rd and 74th amendments of the Indian Constitution to empower these democracies although they had come to power with the lofty slogans of Lok Raj. How miserably they failed in this regard, is a sad history,” he further said.
Prof Gupta lamented that in the State, these rulers never allowed to function these bodies with freedom and even were dissolved before completion of their tenure. In this regard, recalled that in 1975 Emergency, the Jammu Municipal Council was not only dissolved but also the Sheikh led administration had arrested most of the councilors including its President Vaid Vishnu Dutt, with out any charge for months together.
Prof Gupta said if the democratic process was allowed to flourish, there would have been little problems like that of secessionism.
He said the achievement of poll process needed to be strengthened and saved from the designs of the power hungry dynastic parties who are responsible for all the messy situation and problems in Kashmir.
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