JAMMU, Aug 22 Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary on Saturday rejected claims that the National Conference (NC) led government was delaying the elections to Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) but asserted that there should be an administrative and political structure in which elected representatives could genuinely exercise their powers.
Citing the existing Union Territory arrangement, he said, “Today, this is the Omar Abdullah government, but we do not have the police, nor do we have our own IPS or IAS cadre. So what kind of government is this?”
So the NC government would not want PRI elections to be held only for the elected representatives “to later be ignored, denied respect and not even recognised by the officers,” he told reporters while responding to a question about BJP charging the NC-led government of deliberately delaying the elections to panchayat and urban local bodies.
“We have never said we do not want elections. We have said, give us statehood. They (BJP leadership) tell us it will be given at an appropriate time,” Choudhary said.
Earlier, the government had said the process to hold local bodies elections was underway, and polls would be conducted after the completion of administrative formalities such as voter lists, reservations, and delimitation.
“Today, if we make someone a sarpanch or a DDC (district development council) member, would the officers actually listen to them.
“What is the point of holding such elections,” he asked, adding that the people wanted genuine and meaningful elections, not merely symbolic elections.
Choudhary was speaking to reporters after conducting a surprise inspection of a government hospital here.
