Election for chairmen of DPDBs likely to be held soon
Ibni Maqbool
Srinagar, Aug 23: The Jammu and Kashmir administration is mulling to hold elections for District Planning & Development Boards (DPDBs) to take the newly carved out Union Territory’s “lifeless politics out of deep freeze”.
Highly placed sources told Precious Kashmir that administration headed by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha is contemplating to hold polls for electing chairmen of 20 district planning & development boards in J&K.
“The proposal is under consideration. The government is likely to soon write to chief electoral officer of J&K to conduct election for DPDBs which would pave way for constituting the third- tier of Panchayati Raj system in J&K,” they said, adding that Rural Development and Panchayati Raj department would soon put a proposal before the
administrative council to set the ball rolling for the exercise.
A senior official of Rural development department wishing anonymity told this newspaper that coronavirus would not impede the exercise as the electoral college for DPDBs is small.
“Chairmen of Block Development Councils, President of Municipal Committees and Councils, Members of Parliament and Members of Legislative Assembly are eligible to vote during DPDB elections. So the number of voters in a district will not be more than 30-35,” he said.
It is worthwhile to mention here that elections for Panchayats in J&K were held in nine phases between November between November 17 to December 11, 2018.
National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party had boycotted the electoral exercise, citing “repeated assaults” by the Centre on Article 35A which was abrogated along with other statues conferring special status to J&K.
As many as 12000 Sarpanch and Panch berths are vacant in Kashmir due to non-availability of candidates.
In the BDC polls held last year, independents secured lead in 18 districts of Jammu and Kashmir while BJP topped seat list only in two districts- Kishtwar and Shopian.
The BDC polls were held after the Centre abrogated J&K’s special status provided under Article 370 of the Constitution of India.
