JHAjjaRKOTLI: Urging the State election authority to revisit the recent sham and politically motivated delimitation of Panchayats and their Wards before carrying out the biggest electoral exercise in Jammu and Kashmir, National Conference Provincial President Devender Singh Rana on Wednesday said that this will go a long way in assuaging democratic aspirations of rural people and seeking their participatory role in local self government.
“Revision of electoral rolls and reframing of the Panchayats and their wards in accordance with the J and K Panchayat Raj Act 1989 will instill the lost confidence among the rural population, who feel let down by the brazen adjustments carried out by the Rural Development Department to suit interests of the ruling PDP and BJP”, Rana said while addressing a workers’ convention at Jajharkotli, attended by local functionaries and senior party leaders.
On the occasion, the Provincial President welcomed Ajay Khajuria, a leading businessman and grand nephew of the former BJP stalwart and ex-Governor of Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh Vishnu Kant Shastri into National Conference fold, saying a greater realisation is dawning on the enterprising youth to strengthen secular and forward looking forces. “The joining of people like Khajuria will strengthen our resolve to meet the challenges confronted to the state from elements inimical to its unity and inclusiveness”, Rana observed.
Elaborating on the party’s view point on ensuing Panchayat elections, Rana said that the grass-roots level democratic institution could be engine for change and transformation of the rural landscape provided the aspirations of the ruralties are not trampled for political interests. National Conference, he said, will not allow such brazen and undemocratic machinations as the party has relentlessly worked for empowering the people and making them masters of own destiny.
The Provincial President hoped that the State election authority will realize gravity of the situation and take a decision keeping in view the larger public interest and apprehensions expressed by people and the political parties.
“It was due to our unflinching faith in democracy that 2010 witnessed unprecedented turnout in the Panchayat elections undertaken during the tenure of Omar Abdullah as Chief Minister”, Rana said and cautioned against attempts of eroding the sanctity and efficacy of the Panchayat Raj Institutions in a systematic manner. He reiterated that National Conference will knock all the doors, including the Election Commission of India, against the unilateral and authoritarian ways of delimitation process carried out by the PDP-BJP government by ignoring public aspirations.
Rana said that the National Conference will closely watch the moves of the State election authority with the hope that the sinister political machinations of the coalition government do not succeed.