india

Updated: Jan 25, 2020 08:57 IST

The administration in Jammu and Kashmir is planning to hold elections in villages where polls couldn’t be held in 2018 to complete the panchayat poll process in the region.

Sheetal Nanda, commissioner secretary with the panchayati raj department, said while speaking to HT that the process to hold the polls for vacant panchayat posts have already been finalised.

“We will be doing it very soon and we are ready,” Nanda said.

She also said after the completion of the polls, which could likely be held in February, elections will also be held for the chairpersons of the district development and planning boards of every district.

Last year, polls were held for chairpersons of block development boards across J&K.

Out of the 17,396 panchayat wards in Kashmir, around 11,778 are still vacant for which polls couldn’t be held in 2018.

Two main regional political parties National Conference (NC) and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) had boycotted these polls in 2018, when no candidate filed the nomination papers at many places.

Official’s privy to the developments said the polls could be held for 11,453 panchayat wards as others are situated in the snowbound areas and elections can’t take place there due to heavy accumulation of snow and weather conditions.

“We have completed all the formalities for the polls and elections could be held in February,’’ said an official adding that most of these seats remained vacant as candidates didn’t file nominations during polls.

The highest number of vacant panchayat wards are in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district with 2163 followed by Anantnag with 1995 while in Budgam and Pulwama districts there are 1940 and 1437 panchayat wards which are vacant or for which elections couldn’t take place last time as people didn’t file the nominations for the polls.

Likewise, of the 2182 sarpanch vacancies in Kashmir, 923 are still vacant and there is every possibility elections for them could take place next month. However, the government is yet to make a decision about 36 sarpanch posts which are located in the snowbound areas.

Since the 2018 polls, 504 panches have resigned for different reasons. The highest number of the resignations took place in south Kashmir’s Anantnag with 129 office bearers putting in their papers, followed by central Kashmir’s Budgam district with 81 while in Baramulla and Kupwara districts 67 and 61 panches quit.

After getting elected, 12 sarpanches also resigned with one each in Anantnag and Baramulla districts. While five sarpanches quit in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district, one each resigned in Baramulla, Budgam and Bandipore districts of Kashmir.

An officer of the panchayati raj department said there are various reasons behind the resignations of sarpanches and panches.

“Threats due to militancy, deaths and panchayat members getting elected as BDC (block development council) chairmen are the reasons for the resignations,” the official said.

“The process now will be completed very soon and after the polls, there will be the completion of a two-tier system of panchayati raj system in Kashmir province,” the official added.

The panchayati raj officials said that more than Rs 1400 crore have been deposited in the gram panchayats across J&K for different projects in the last few months. However, the absence of panches and sarpanches could mean that these funds will remain unutilised.

The central government had said the last panchayat elections held in 2018 were a big success. The panchayat elections had witnessed a good turnout and the Centre had promised massive funds for all the gram panchayats.