J&K govt to hold BDC elections by Sept end

Amid prevailing unrest, the Jammu and Kashmir government on Saturday announced that elections for Block Development Councils (BDCs) in the state will be held by the end of September.

“Elections will be held in 316 BDCs across the state by the end of September and preparations for that are ongoing,” Secretary of state Rural Development Department, Sheetal Nanda, said.

He said the first step for holding the elections was to complete the reservations across the valley and Jammu divisions. The elections for panchayats were held late last year. While the administration had announced that BDCs polls would be held by January, it couldn't be held till now.

The daily press conference, which was held after a two-day gap, was also addressed by the government spokesman Rohit Kansal. “The threat of cross-border terrorism exists and the security forces are in a state of high alert,” he told reporters.

On restrictions and information blockade in the Valley, he said, “Day time restrictions have now been lifted from 69 police stations across the valley. In Jammu, the corresponding figure is 81 police stations without any day time restrictions.”

Kansal said the pace of restoration of landlines is constantly being reviewed with the BSNL authorities.

“One of the reasons for the slow pace for the restoration of landlines in the manual intervention required in some exchanges," he said.