J&K forms committee to chalk out Panchayat poll roadmap

Jammu and Kashmir government has set up a state-level committee (SLC) to chalk out a roadmap and a detailed schedule for the elections to urban local bodies and panchayats across the state.

The move comes days after the State Administrative Council, headed by Governor N N Vohra, consented to the conduct of the polls.

Two other committees headed by divisional commissioners of Jammu and Kashmir provinces will provide inputs to the fresh committee regarding the ground situation and other logistical requirements for the panchayat elections.

According to an order, the divisional-level committees shall submit an outline of the possibilities and constraints to the state-level committee based on an assessment of manpower, security, logistical transport, equipments and all other requirements.

These reports shall be submitted to the state-level panel by July 27.

Sources said the initiative has been taken in view of the 2011 experience when a record 80% people voted in the panchayat polls in the state despite unrest and militancy.

The polls were scheduled in 2016, when the five-year term ended, but the elections could not be held due to unrest in the Valley following the killing of Burhan Wani by security forces on July 8, 2016.

The polls could not be held last year as well as most of 2017 was marked with unrest.

The by-election for Anantnag Lok Sabha seat, which fell vacant after Mehbooba Mufti was elected chief minister in 2016, is yet to be held after it was cancelled following widespread violence on April 9 last year during the Srinagar parliamentary by-polls, which recorded only 6% turnout.

Nine people died in the violence that day.

Though the previous, PDP-BJP government had on December 26 last year announced to undertake a mammoth exercise to elect nearly 18,785 panchs and 2,369 sarpanchs in Kashmir during the elections, the continuing unrest and rise in militancy forced then government to abort the idea.

Days after the then government led by Mehbooba Mufti showed willingness to hold the polls, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militant outfit threatened to pour acid into the eyes of people who will participate in the poll process.

While more than a dozen panchayat members were killed by the militants between 2011 and 2017, the polls last time, which were held after a gap of three decades, were violence free.

Pakistan based Hizb-ul-Mujahideen chief Syed Salah-ud-Din had that time (in 2011) initially announced that they won’t target people associated with the panchayat poll process.

However, later he retracted from his statement saying panches and sarpanches were exploited by India to project Kashmir as pro-India and “they will continue to be targeted no matter how much the government tries to secure them."

Besides the militant’s threats, the separatist leaders Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik have also called for a boycott of the upcoming elections.