It appears that Urban Local Bodies elections in the State are met with bad days. Chances of holding these elections in near future have receded considerably. Actually the Government was planning to complete the third and final stage of devolution of power to the people by holding elections to the Urban Local Bodies. But the process has met with hurdles and concerned authorities are tight-lipped. However observers feel that the Government takes at least three considerations into account and prefers to remain non-committal for the time being. The tourist season is on. People connected with this industry want that the season of tourism should pass without any untoward incident. Experience of 2009-10 remains a nightmare for them because owing to disturbances and strikes, the industry met with serious losses and recession. They are apprehensive that election being a sensitive matter, people could be intimidated or denied the right to cast their vote properly. Nobody wants that the tourist season should be disrupted. The second situation on which authorities are focusing is the commencement of pilgrimage to the holy Amarnath Cave shrine on 28 June lasting till 21 August. The number of pilgrims to the holy cave has shown upward trend since some years in the past. The Amarnathji Shrine Board has been making preparations at full speed to provide more facilities to the prospective pilgrims. The Government machinery will be busy with this major event and a large number of State functionaries are required to run the election. It may be difficult to run two major events simultaneously.
The third and perhaps the decisive factor why the Government would give cold shoulder to holding elections is the threat of the militants to those who would want to participate in democratic process. At the root lies the threat and intimidation of Sarpanchs and Panchs extended by the militants. The Government is not prepared to risk the lives of elected persons as that would be an indication of the weakness of the Government. In a sense one may infer that the Government might be rethinking that security policy needs to be streamlined further and focus should be on providing foolproof security to the corporates, cancellers and members of committees who will constitute the structure of Urban Local Bodies that will come up in towns and cities. We are aware that some Sarpanchs and Panchs were gunned down by militants.
But there is another side of the picture as well. As far as the season for tourism is concerned, the situation of 2010 is past history. That was a bad experience and a very unfortunate development had taken place. But thanks to wisdom and farsightedness of the authorities and the members of civil society, that ugly scene was not allowed to repeat in last three seasons.. Elections to assembly or to the parliament have been mostly held during summer. Elections have never been an obstacle in the path of tourists. Therefore the argument that elections will obstruct the flow of tourists is a far-fetched idea.
As far as Amarnath pilgrimage is concerned, we have passed through critical years 1990s. Pilgrimage to Amarnath continued whether in large or in small numbers. At the same time election process was not halted at any time. It is not a convincing argument that elections to ULB should be deferred because the administration will be busy with the yatra event. The number of pilgrims to Shri Amarnath Ji will go on increasing from year to year. We cannot make it a reason for halting other functions. Tourist Department and Election Commission have their respective functions to perform.
Of course, security is of vital importance. That the State is still not out of woods in regard to threatened security is a fact that cannot be denied. Elections to the ULB desire that foolproof security is provided to the prospective candidates fighting the elections and the staff deployed to conduct the elections.
Last ULB elections were held in 2005 after a gap of 26 years. More delay is detrimental to the development of the urban areas. The Government should take the first opportunity of deciding when elections would be held.
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