Govt not coming clear on holding
Local bodies elections: Mehbooba
Jammu, Mar 11 (VOS): Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti today flayed National Conference (NC) led coalition regime for not coming clear on holding local bodies elections in the state.
Addressing public meetings at Narianiana Mohalla and Bhawati Nagar areas of Jammu city, Mehbooba Mufti raised question over government’s intension to conduct local bodies elections because no proper home work has been done so far for these elections. “Neither proper delimitation has  been done to include new areas in the purview of Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC), nor discrepancies from existing electoral rolls have been removed so far”, she pointed out, adding, “the Government had announced to conduct local bodies elections by the end of April this year but process in this regard is yet to be started”.
PDP chief pointed out that many deserving areas namely Bithandi, Sunjwana, Chatta etc have been excluded from the JMC despite the fact that these areas were fit case to be included in the JMC. She said that exclusion of these areas authenticate that delimitation process was defective and full of discrepancies. She said that these areas have been fast developing colonies of the city but have been excluded from municipal limits.
She expressed surprise that earlier the state government was looking for excuses to postpone the civic bodies elections and now the government has decided to complete the whole process by the end of April this year. “Before announcing the schedule of the elections government should do the homework properly”, she said and cautioned conducting elections, without including deserving areas, would deny democratic right to the residents of many deserving areas.
Coming down heavily on State Government for adopting causal approach toward strengthening democratic institutions in the State, Mehbooba Mufti said that prevailing anarchy and chaos in such institutions suits the government because some vested interests within the government have been taking benefit of the situation. “During the last two years hundreds of backdoor appointments have been made in local bodies because there is no accountability and transparency in these institutions ”, she said, adding, “as elections were not held during the last two years some vested interests have been brazenly taking benefit of the prevailing situation”. She further added unauthorized construction in the city and adjoining localities were also going unabated because there was no check on such construction.
PDP chief said that it was during the regime of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed that elections of the local bodies were held after a gap of more than two decades. “The present dispensation during the last two years has eroded sanctity of democratic institutions be it Panchayats, local bodies or the Assembly”, she regretted, adding, “the way the government has been delaying local bodies elections for the last two months only reflects dictatorial  mindset of the ruling elites”.
The meetings were organised by Madhu Gupta and Shishu Gandotra. Those addressed the  meetings included Daman Bhasin, R K Bali, Mushtaq Ahmed, Rouf Khan, Puneet Jamwal and others.