Srinagar: The BJP-led government has set the ball rolling for conducting the first-ever District Development Council elections in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir after the union cabinet approved an amendment to the Jammu and Kashmir Panchayat Raj Act, 1989.
This decision comes over 14 months after the abrogation of Article 370 and cleared the decks for the introduction of the three-tier local elected governance system in JK. The three-tier includes Gram Panchayat, Block Development Council and District Development Council.
Amendment of Panchayat Raj Act
The amendment to the law, effected by the Ministry of Home Affairs on October 16, will lead to the establishment of District Development Councils (DDC) whose members will be directly elected by voters.
The amendments have been carried out by way of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization (Adaptation of State Laws) Fourth Order, 2020 issued by Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla in the exercise of powers conferred by Section 96 of the J&K Reorganization Act, 2019.
Before abrogation of Article 370, the powers to amend the laws in Jammu and Kashmir wrested with the assembly. However, with the implementation of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act (2019), the powers are vested with the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The 73rd amendment to the Jammu and Kashmir Panchayat Raj Act, 1989 was a long-pending demand of the panchayat members associations here, but none of the elected governments amended the Act.
The amendment to the Act was announced on Wednesday by Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar who said approval of the amendment to the Jammu and Kashmir Panchayati Raj Act will facilitate the holding of elections soon.
Javadekar said before the abrogation of Article 370 people elsewhere in the country elsewhere had the right to elect local representatives, but in Jammu and Kashmir “that was not happening”.
“This was promised by the Prime Minister in Kashmir, and it was promised by the Home Minister in Parliament. Now that stands redeemed. Now there will be early elections, and the power to manage local bodies will go to the people,” Javadekar said.
The amended Act has kept reservation for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and it states that not less than one-third of the total number of seats reserved shall be kept for women belonging to the Scheduled Castes or, as the case may be, the Scheduled Tribes.
Moreover, one-third (including the number of seats reserved for women belonging to the SCs and STs) of the total number of seats to be filled by direct election in every DDC shall be reserved for women.
As per the Act, the reserved seats shall be allotted by rotation to different constituencies in the district.
DDC elections, composition and functions
In the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, in place of DDC, the governments would constitute District Planning and Development Boards. A cabinet minister would be the chairman of the board and comprised of MLCs, MLAs, MPs and chairpersons of block development councils, urban local bodies as members besides district development commissioner.
The board would frame a yearly development plan and allot a particular budget for the development works.
According to the amended law, each district in Jammu and Kashmir will have 14 constituencies and each of the constituency will have an elected member for DDC. The DDC members will then elect a chairperson and vice-chairperson. Member of Parliament will not be a member of the DDC as per the new act. The delimitation for the constituencies has already begun and many districts have notified them.
Once the DDCs are elected they are empowered to frame and execute the entire development plan. A DDC will have jurisdiction over the whole district excluding the portions falling within the municipal limits.
The term of the DDC shall be five years except for holding common elections to all the tiers of the Panchayats simultaneously so that all the tiers have co-extensive terms in the district and one-third of the total number of seats for the office of Chairperson of District Development Council in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir shall be reserved for women.
Each DDC shall have a Standing Committee for Finance, Standing Committee of Development, Standing Committee for Public Works, Standing Committee for Health and Education and Standing Committee for Welfare. Each Committee will consist of such number of members including its Chairperson as decided by the District Development Council so that all other elected members except the Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson shall be elected as a member in any of the Standing Committee and the number of members elected to each Standing Committee shall, as far as possible, be equal.
Political parties’ reactions
The ruling BJP termed the amendment path-breaking initiative.
“Under PM @narendramodi, a path-breaking step, to set up, for the first time, district development councils (DDCs) in #Jammu & Kashmir. J&K Panchayati Raj rules amended to provide DDC, delimitation of their constituencies & elections; DDCs to be divide into 14 constituencies/ district,” Jatinder Singh, union minister in the PMO office, tweeted.
Since the amendment has come after the abrogation of Article 370, the mainstream political parties have raised suspicions over the decision.
Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee spokesman Ravinder Sharma said in a statement that how it is justified to have an equal number of seats in larger districts like Jammu with more than eight rural assembly segments and some other bigger districts with those districts having two assembly segments only.
“BJP does not want to face the people in the Assembly elections as it apprehends backlash of its anti-people decisions and policies which deprived the people of their identity and special rights to jobs and land,” Sharma said.
The major regional parties including National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party have not officially reacted to the amended yet.
The amended act also divided the All Jammu and Kashmir Panchayat Conference, an association of elected panchayat members in Jammu and Kashmir.
AJKPC president Anil Sharma welcomed the amendments in the J&K Panchayati Raj Act and said the people of the union territory were waiting for over 70 years to see "real empowerment of local bodies".
"All the people of Jammu and Kashmir were waiting for over 70 years to see real empowerment of local bodies and it is time to celebrate when the decision is announced to give real autonomy to rural local bodies," he said in a press conference in Jammu.
AJKPC chairman Shafiq Mir demanded a rollback of the amendments and said doors have been opened for political activists to enter this institution which is clear injustice and has demoralised the panchayat leaders.
“Not only this, by this amendment, the elected BDC chairpersons will not have any right to vote or to contest the district chairman election which is against the spirit of Panchayati Raj Act,” Mir said in a press conference in Jammu.
Elections
With the amended act now in place, sources in the government said that elections for DDCs and vacant panchayat seats are likely to be held in the between November and December this year.
