Repeated postponement of Municipal Elections unlawful
STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Condemning the repeated postponements of the Urban Local Bodies elections in J and K during the last few years, Harsh Dev Singh, Chairman JKNPP and former Minister, regretted that that the State has been deprived of thousand of crores of rupees for development of municipal areas which has been withheld by the Central Government due to the failure of the State Government to constitute the elected municipal bodies.
He regretted that non holding of ULB elections due to vested interests of BJP and PDP despite repeated statements during 2015 and 2016 has deprived the State of hundreds of crores for development of such Municipal bodies which comprised 74 Municipal Committees, six Municipal Councils and two Municipal Corporations. He said that with no indication of such elections being held in 2017, the State was set to loose thousands of crores due to political inexpediencies of BJP and PDP.
Hailing the bold initiative of the 14th Finance Commission to enhance the funding for local bodies in the State, Harsh pointed out that the said commission had proposed Rs. 4,161 crore for the state which included 3,117.36 crore for Rural Local Bodies and Rs. 1,044.51 crore for Urban Local Bodies with a precondition that funds would be released only if elected local bodies were constituted as a measure of democratic decentralisation.
Singh that the 14th Finance Commission had provided a grant of Rs. 125.30 crore in the first instance for 2015-16 which however could not be availed and got lapsed due to governments failure to hold such elections. He said earlier also Rs. 169.29 crores of funds under 13th Finance Commission for urban local bodies had lapsed for the same reason. Likewise around Rs. 173.50 crore proposed for 2016-17 under 14th Finance and Rs. 197 crore for AMRUT scheme is also likely to get lapsed as government has no intentions to constitute Municipal bodies before March 2017.
He deplored that the lackadaisical approach of the govt. and the dirty politics played by coalition partners by postponing elections for political reasons was depriving the general masses and prospective beneficiaries of the benefits envisaged for them under various GoI schemes. He said that non holding of immediate elections would further deprive the state of ‘Performance Grant’ of Rs. 607 crore for five years starting 1st April, 2015 which had been assured by the 14th Finance Commission as additional grant in case the State fulfilled the benchmarks stipulated by it.
Reminding the government of the assurances doled out by it repeatedly for early holding of ULB elections, Harsh regretted the ‘in-explicable’ delay and repeated postponements of the same despite the state Elections Authorities having indicated their preparedness on scores of occasions.
Flaying the dilly dally tactics of the State Government, he said the Coalition Government was to be blamed for poor delivery of basic civic services including water supply, sanitation sewage and solid waste management, maintenance of community assets, upkeep of roads, lanes, drains, footpaths, street lighting besides other facilities which were adversely affected by the delayed elections caused due to political expediencies of the alliance partners.
