Jammu: In the post 2019 Jammu and Kashmir, different sections of society and political ideologies have different perceptions, but election is the common minimum desire which everyone wants to have at the earliest.

With the ‘exclusive’ delimitation process complete in May this year and the final electoral rolls published on November 25 following special summary revision there is no technical reason to delay the elections any further. But no one has any clue how, when and by whom a decision shall be arrived at for the Assembly elections.

In a television interview on November 15, Home Minister Amit Shah said that he wants the Assembly elections to held in Jammu and Kashmir soon, but then he was quick to add “the government wants to see it from the security point of view and then the election commission has to decide”.

As suspense further deepens on Assembly elections, the first in Jammu and Kashmir as a Union Territory, the coming year looks full of other elections to keep people engaged politically.

Elections to Panchayats, the Municipal Corporations and other urban local bodies are due in the later half of 2023. The moment high-security-detailed Amarnath pilgrimage ends in August, Jammu and Kashmir will be found in a full drawn election mode which are expected to last till the end of the year. Between the beginning of Amarnath pilgrimage and melting of snows there is a three-month window of security-safe pleasant whether which could promise a good time for Assembly elections. If this window is missed, then expect Assembly elections in 2024.

Exactly a year before reading down of Article 370, the Center had started prioritizing the Panchayati Raj institutions by building a case for empowerment of common man through ‘real democracy’ and ‘real self-rule’. This narrative around the Panchayats, in background of their history, did work well and it continues to do so through unprecedented institutional empowerment of the elected representatives who have been filling the political gap.

Quick recent history

After an extraordinarily long gap, the process of Panchayat elections was revived by Dr Farooq Abdullah towards the fag end of his term in 2001. However, as the Panchayats awaited their formal empowerment under law, the Mufti Mohammad Sayeed government suspended Panchayats in 2004 under the pretext of new laws ahead of proposed fresh elections. These elections never happened. It was in 2011 that Omar Abdullah government conducted Panchayat elections after gap of ten years. These Panchayats completed their terms in 2016 when Mehbooba Mufti was the Chief Minister of the Peoples Democratic Party and Bhartiya Janta Party alliance. The coalition government delayed the elections on one pretext or the other till it saw its collapse in June 2018.

In the hindsight

With fall of Mehbooba Mufti government being a beginning point, as the Center prepared for the massive constitutional changes, the Panchayat elections of 2018, as one looks back, were among the major steps to keep people politically engaged and also appreciate that elected governments were not willing to share powers at the grassroots. Despite some constituencies in Kashmir remaining vacant, the Panchayat elections created over 40,000 stakeholders in the system -Jammu and Kashmir has 316 Rural Development Blocks and consequently as many Block Development Councils, 4490 Panchayat constituencies and a whopping 35096 Panch constituencies.

While the Panchayats saw a gradual process of empowerment, barely two months after the August 5 events, the Government announced elections to the Block Development Councils. Through an indirect poll -to elected through elected Sarpanchs and Panchs -the BDCs were being constituted after decades. These elections concluded November 2019.

Happening in Jammu and Kashmir for the first time ever, elections to the third tier of Panchayati Raj was held in November-December 2020 and the District Development Councils constituted, again through indirect elections, in February-March 2021. With accord of protocol and status of eminence to the top two tiers of Panchayats and devolution of well-defined financial powers, these four years have been exciting for the rural population of Jammu and Kashmir which comprised around 79% of total voters in Jammu and Kashmir.

Which elections to expect in 2023

With Assembly elections everyone’s guess, two certain democratic exercises for the autumn of 2023 are the Panchayats and the Municipalities. The law provides five-year term for the Panchayats and the Municipal bodies.

However, there is a trick which could trigger major high-stake political activities in 2023 drawing all political parties to compete for the space -the elections to all three tiers of the Panchayats could happen in the same year.

The Panchayats, the Block Development Councils and the District Development Councils are part of the same single institution, all three have five-year term of office, but their terms, as seen currently, are not concurrent to each other. The Panchayats have their terms ending in 2023, the BDCs in 2024 and the DDCs in 2024-25.

While the Panchayati Raj Act stipulates five-year term for each tier, but there is a clear provision which says that the term could be truncated if the government wants to hold elections to all three tiers together. Since, this is first time ever that the Panchayati Raj institutions have all three tiers elected and in place, officials say, there is a justification in harmonising their terms of office for better synergy and discipline of leaders.

There is a greater possibility that Jammu and Kashmir could see more than two elections in 2023 which may or may not include the election to first Assembly of the Union Territory.

Jammu, November 28:

The governments of Haryana and J&K today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to strengthen and deepen the collaboration on knowledge sharing, IT initiatives and best practices in e-governance.

The pact was signed by the UT’s IT Department and the Department of Information Technology Electronics and Communication Haryana (DITECH) during the valedictory session of 25th National Conference on e-Governance being held at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University in Katra. The event also witnessed the launch of J&K’s vision document and cyber security policy.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who paid obeisance at the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine before attending the conference in Reasi, recalled his three years in J&K (as an RSS pracharak) when there was Article 370 in force and terrorism was at its peak. J&K has come out of the terrorism phase and is heading towards development, he said.

According to Khattar, many vested interests are not happy with the digitalisation of services because it has checked corruption. “We are looking forward to the new J&K-Haryana collaboration and committed to support the UT in meeting the goals. Haryana is ready to provide consultancy, training or any other support which you need from us,” he said.

Highlighting the UT’s achievements, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said, “In 2013, the total number of e-transaction was merely 20 lakh in J&K. This year, till November 25, the number of e-transaction is 38.50 crore. On an average, J&K is recording 550 e-transactions every minute.” He underscored that despite being a late entrant in digital transformation, J&K has achieved several milestones with solid technical architecture at the service of citizens.

“We are also working on the development of IT infrastructure, technology-led market linkages, encouraging emerging concepts like use of artificial intelligence in agriculture for welfare of farmers, layered public grievances and use of metaverse (for global tourism),” Sinha said.

More than 500 services will be made online in the next 3 years for a better digital delivery ecosystem, the L-G said. “We have prepared a road map and action plan for the next one, three and five years,” he added.

The two-day conference was organised by J&K in collaboration with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances.

UDHAMPUR: A top Islamic scholar and his son are among four persons killed in a tragic road mishap in the Chenani area of Udhampur district this morning.

An official said that a Maruti vehicle bearing registration number JK19 1449, on its way from Gool Sangaldan towards Udhampur, skidded off the road and fell into a deep gorge near Prem Mandir Chenani, resulting in spot death of two persons and injuries to several others.

The injured persons were evacuated from the spot for treatment, however, two more persons succumbed on way to the hospital, they said. Among the deceased include chief cleric Jamia Masjid Sangaldan Abdul Hamid (32) and his father, a top Islamic scholar, Mohammad Jamal Din (65). More details awaited.

Amid the increasing cold and absence of heating arrangements in classrooms, the School Education Department announced winter vacations in a phased manner.

Even as the vacation has been announced, the heating arrangements must be provided both in government and private schools till the schools finally get closed for the winter break.

The mercury level goes down to sub-zero level during nights now. According to reports, Srinagar recorded coldest night of the season so far at minus 2.1 degree Celsius during the intervening night of November 26 and November 27.

The impact of freezing cold in night remains during the morning and day time also. Under these conditions the children go to schools and attend classes without any heating arrangements in the classrooms.

As per the government announcement, winter vacation for students up to 5th standard will begin from December 1 and for 6th to 8th standard students from December 12.

The winter vacation for students from 9th to 12th standard will commence from December 19. The authorities should not just think that they have announced the winter vacations and there is no need for the heating arrangements in classrooms now.

There is a need for the heating arrangements and the students must not suffer amid the cold conditions. Both the government and private schools have been almost taking for-granted the providing of heating arrangements. Most parents also demand such a facility for their school going children as they complain of cold in classrooms.

Availability of the facility is not a favour to the students. It is their right. At a time while so much is being said at official level about welfare measures for children, why this right is being ignored constantly.

While huge funds are being utilised for other purposes, why a small amount to be required for heating arrangements is becoming so problematic for the school education department and private schools.

Heating arrangements must become a permanent feature in schools and authorities must not wait first for the demands to be made for the purpose.

The heating arrangements must be in classrooms not only till the schools close for winter vacation but also for sometime if needed when the schools reopen in March.

Sometimes during the early days of March there is cold due to rains or even snow. So heating arrangements are also needed at that time.

SRINAGAR: PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday urged the youths to participate in future civic and assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, saying it is their ”weapon” to fight for their rights and they should not cede space to the BJP.

“It is not BJP’s India and, note it down, we will not let it become BJP’s India,” Mufti said at a party function here. The former J-K chief minister also warned the Centre not to behave “like those raiders from Pakistan who came to the valley in 1947” and were forced to flee by Kashmiris.

“India is not BJP. The India which we joined is Jawaharlal Nehru’s India, (M K) Gandhi ji’s India, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad’s India, it is the India of Rahul Gandhi who is travelling the country for Hindu-Muslim unity, it is Tushar Gandhi’s India,” Mufti said.

She again lashed out at the BJP for the scrapping of Article 370 in 2019.“We have formed a bond of heart with this country, the constitutional bond, the bond of love, but what did you do? You played with our dignity, our identity. You destroyed the whole state. This will not work,” she added. Mufti asked the youth not to cede space to the BJP.

“If panchayat elections or municipal elections take place, I want to tell the youth especially not to cede space to them,” she said. Mufti said local bodies or assembly was a power in the hands of the youth and they should not leave it to someone else.

“If you want to fight, this is your small as well as big weapon. Panchayats, local bodies or assembly are the weapons in your hands, power in your hands and you should not leave it for someone else,” she said. The PDP chief vowed to continue the struggle for the restoration of J-K’s special status, saying everything taken from the people of J-K will be brought back “along with interest”. (PTI)