STATE TIMES NEWS
Ramnagar: Asserting that no amount of logic or arguments could justify the proposed amendments in the Panchayati Raj Act, Harsh Dev Singh, Chairman JKNPP and former Minister, on Saturday urged upon the State Government to withdraw the same once for all.
He said that the BJP-PDP Government rather than proceeding further to respond to the queries raised by the Governor for justifying its amendment proposal in the PR Act, should honour the general public sentiment and withdraw the said amendments in view of wide spread public clamour against the same.
He was addressing various public meetings in villages Kakrai, Balpur, Tanani, Bilaspur of Ramnagar Constituency.
Harsh appealed to the Governor to take into consideration the public resentment against the proposed amendments and to refuse his assent to the bill under Sec 78 of the Constitution of J and K in case the State Government persists with its decision on the issue.
Pointing towards the widespread condemnations and all round opposition to the proposed amendments to the Bill, he said that authoritarianism had no place in the democratic system. He further said that the proposed changes in the Panchayati Raj Act having been disapproved by Panchayats besides various social and political organisations, there was no rationale or logic to proceed with the said amendment bill which needed to be rejected by the Governor.
He also said that the government was resorting to such tactics only to delay and deny the democratic rights to the rural populace and to deprive them of their legitimate rights of local self governance. Accusing the incumbent government for its highly regressive move to sabotage the empowerment of rural people, Harsh divulged that the newly proposed amendments would completely transmute the structure of Panchayati Raj as envisaged under the existing Act. He revealed that it was an outcome of the vigorous campaigns launched by Panchayats and aggressive stance of the legislators earlier when the previous dispensation was forced to incorporate the provisions of 73rd Amendment of the constitution of India in the State Act.
He added that indirect elections of sarpanchs and election of one Chairman for a cluster of blocks violated the spirit of the Act.
Harsh pointed out that the government had further constituted a cabinet sub-committee of Group of Ministers with regard to the finalisation of modus operandi to be followed for constitution of Block Development Councils which has recommended to the Rural Development Department to undertake an exercise for rationalization of Blocks so as to ascertains whether it could have a single Block Development council for more than one Block. He described the recommendation of the Group of Ministers a foxy move to delay and deny the three tier systems of Panchayats. He further regretted that Panchayats had been facing acute financial crisis and the neglect of the government to constitute a separate Finance Commission as envisaged under law had only made the situation worse. He demanded immediate constitution of the aforesaid commission for according financial autonomy to the Panchayats and also sought the implementation of 3-tier Panchayat Raj system with elected Panchayats, elected Block councils and elected District Planning and Development Board with due representation to women, SC and STs.
