The term of Panchayats, Municipal Corporations, Councils and Committees has either ended or coming to an end. However, there is no word about holding these polls, about which government had boosted at various forums since abrogation of Article 370.
Earlier it was thought that new Panchayats and Urban Local Bodies polls will be held in the month of September so that new panchayat members and corporators will be in place by the end of the year, however government seems in no hurry to hold these polls.
J&K Lt Governor, Manoj Sinha recently said that urban local bodies elections will be held after delimitation. However mainstream political parties have little hope about the holding of these polls. Post abrogation of Article 370, the leaders especially from BJP have been boosting about completing all three tiers of the democracy. However one by one all the tiers have vanished without anybody trying to clear the air. It has been around 9 years when people in Kashmir voted in elections for assembly polls. Now Panchayats and Urban Local Bodies are being delayed.
Almost all the mainstream political leaders have been demanding holding of these polls to empower the grassroot of democracy. Even former J&K former chief minister, Omar Abdullah said that he even fears for holding of the Parliament elections in J&K. From past many days, Omar Abdullah has been targeting BJP for not holding elections, assembly, panchayat or urban local bodies polls in UT.
Last week, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha after felicitating Councilors of Jammu Municipal Corporation, whose tenure ended yesterday said the elections for Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) would be held after the completion of delimitation exercise of wards and reservation of wards for other Backward Classes. These polls had helped take the democracy to he grassroot level and had even managed flow of funds in the villages and towns. Now if these polls will get delayed there are apprehensions that J&K will lose large number of funds.
